Another Oc in One Piece
by halucynacja
Summary: Published just to be left for a rather long period of time. Imagine a girl. A pessimist from our world. With an uncanny resemblance to the known fire-user. A girl who would rather spend her time at home than constantly having panic attacks. And whose main concern right now is getting back home at all costs while not getting killed. Like stated above. Just another Oc in One Piece.
1. Chapter 1

It had been a few days since the accident. The most unnatural out-of-earth accident, which was impossible regardless of how seen.

Landing in a world full of constant danger, surrounded by abnormally strongmen, magical creatures that could be even bigger than the highest mountain and most importantly: being stuck there with the power of a under-the-average making it painfully pathetic compared to these monsters. The survival chances degenerated to zero at this moment.

The woman, age 18 almost 19, was having a dilemma of her whole life. More like the worst mental breakdown of her life.

The first hours of her stay here were made up by mostly utter confusion mixed with disorientation about what was going on. It didn't help at all that as the time went on the better she was realizing her current situation. And even more it became hard not to make it seem like an awful dream regarding that she had now idea how she got here in the first place. Her thoughts too hazy and vague to remember what could have happened apart from the sweet scent of her home where she previously had been before the 'incident'.

The nightmare carried on and the thought about it being reality was difficult to accept. Her thoughts raced from her mom, dad, little brother and the very few friends she had. She tried keeping herself together, but after the first few days she had to let go of the attachment, only some though as not to work herself into a panic attack. She had an inkling that in the near future she would have enough shares of it, her home and family being an important, but smaller part of the breakdowns.

Eventually the worry slowly faded away to the back of the mind making it seem like a simple headache constantly coming up at every opportunity.

There was another problem, as the former became less important in this situation.

It was about being stuck an island which turned out to be in the middle of autumn. Moreover it looked deserted apart from the few animals raged from small squirrels to large tigers. Luckily it ended without any direct meetings yet it didn't mean there weren't any, judging by the roars every now and then. The days were quite chilly which wasn't much as the clothing the woman had consisted of a pair of denim jeans, a dark blue hoodie with a red top underneath and a pair of small white in-ear headphones swinging freely around her neck with the cable hidden beneath the clothes with the MP4 player tucked in the front pocket of the jeans. Another reason to believe that she had been at her apartment before she, well, ended up here.

The bad side was that she didn't have any footwear apart from the straw sandals, which didn't help much against the cold. During the day it didn't much matter as she went along the shore in hope of finding at least some living being, but at night the temperature could sink to under 0 degree Celsius. At least it felt like that. So in order to get some sleep she gathered some leaves that could as well be a blanket and decided not to get any deeper into the forest to avoid any tigers. It was also better in case a ship showed on the horizon so she could somehow catch their attention. How, it didn't matter that much, as long as she could remain visible. And like that the few days passed since her arrival.

On the what seemed like the 6th day she let out a sigh and any hope of making her situation better.

"I still hope I don't meet someone like the guy from the first day."

She still remembered the bulky man and a sea creature looking like it wanted to savage the man who was in comparison a flea. The result of the match was obvious from the beginning which the man was either too oblivious to consider or ignored the simple fact. Either way it ended with an eaten man and a delighted expression of the monster which the guy shouted to be a Sea King. She vaguely remembered the term from somewhere but shrugged it off after a while.

"I should stop thinking about it. It's not like it would help me right now," said she while walking through the shore. Her legs had given her a harsh time as it had been a long time for her so-called walk. She struggled some more before promptly falling onto the sand. Many thoughts crowded her mind so she to take a short rest and eat something as the protest came also from her stomach in form of loud growling.

"I'll need to calm down. Simple walking here is also meaningless if I don't think of some sort of a plan," she thought. Meanwhile she staggered to the forest to pick up some of the ripe fruit.

"Thank God, that it seems to be autumn or else I couldn't have lasted so long," she muttered under her nose. She went back to the shore and finally let her poor legs rest for a while and devour her seemingly dinner which consisted of an apple, a few nuts and to her surprise two peaches.

"No wonder my legs ache a lot. Even back home it was easier to walk on the road than on sand. Heck, I'm an in-door type. Makes sense for someone aiming to be a programmer," pouted she.

It was a pretty warm sunny autumn afternoon, a perfect time for a break. It would have been an ideal place for chilling from the day-to-day stress coming from the tests, exams, graduation and any other paperwork altogether with the upcoming collage exams.

"Just a beautiful time to vanish from the earth surface and appear in a what seems to be a kind of island with stupid animals in the forest and dumb monsters in the sea," complained she taking a look at the sky as she lay on her back on the sandy ground.

"At least the sky seems to be somewhat normal, reminds me kinda of home," she thought smiling a bit for the first time since her unexpected arrival. Then realization came upon her and frowned saying out loud:

"There won't be coming any holes or monsters out of the sky, I hope."

She stared a bit more intensive at the white shining clouds and let out a sigh of relief. Taking a look at what happened during the few days she was prepared that anything could happen right then. Especially after seen the sea creature. She took a deep breath and heaved herself up on her two feet. A pair of her dark brown locks fell into her face making her splutter and curse some colorful wordings something between "Should've cut it" and "Hate this so much" in response. "To think that I wanted to have longer hair," muttered she as she fought off the rest of the clingy dirty strand of hair. "Good, that it's only a bit under shoulder length." Thankfully the anger faded away if only for a bit. It certainly added some fire to the pessimistic teen. With the new-found power after the so-called dinner-break and short battle with the hair, she continued with her walk. This time she slowed down a bit more as not to get tired that easily. As she carried on, her mind was clouded with lots of thoughts.

"Though I can walk further in hope of finding some civilization, the plan won't be of much use if it turns out to be deserted island. On the other side there was a man if only for a short time."

She shuddered recalling the memory of the shouting man.

"That would mean that there should be some people. Maybe they are at the shore, a port village, or in the forest …"

She stopped for a moment and looked at the giant forest with its noises. She pondered about the possibility. Then a roar could be heard with an ear-splitting shriek. Her face turned blank and the answer in her head resounded: "No way, definitely no. I'm not going there."

She walked a bit faster, away from the source which in her mind seemed not so far from her. She prayed that the "source" of it would not come near her. It didn't help that she was more stressed than ever causing a mass of panic attacks in her mind. The only thing that calmed her down were: deep breathing to calm her body and in a cold manner thinking about what to do next to at least help her ease the situation like citing philosophical quotes. Her favorite one being: "Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse."

„Heck, I knew that I was somewhat of a pessimistic realist, but not a down-right pessimist," she thought bitterly. At least she knew that in the near future she wouldn't be that alone. Misery and bitterness sure made a nice companion. At any rate sarcasm and cynicism would make for a good laugh.

"Alright screw the somewhat normal sky. It certainly is also screwing with me," she shouted into thin air while looking for shelter under the trees. Just a couple hours ago she was walking, dry, in a better mood, and now she was completely drenched, cold air hitting her like a baseball bat making her violently shiver. "Should have known that, " she said in a more toned-down voice before rising it a higher pitch. "Oh yeas, I forgot, I'm an idiot. How could I forget it?"

She looked around for some bigger than normal leaves but found only some relative small ones. The wind became stronger with every second so without wasting time she grabbed two of the bigger ones. About 40 cm big, which was astonishing in comparison to the one back home, to make some kind of protection for her head, additionally she put on her hood. She thought about staying behind a tree and wait out the storm if not for the giant waves that crashed hard against the sand taking some of the trees. She ran up a bit further into the forest just to see equally giant monsters coming out of the sea. She would have hesitated more about coming into a forest with dangerous animals though the sight in front of her cleared any doubts.

Without further ado she dashed as fast as she could with her legs not taking a moment to look around her. She was too absorbed at her running/stumbling over anything/falling to ground but not caring too much about the mud on her inwardly panicking that she could very well not pay any attention. The storm didn't seem to lessen at all and she still hadn't found a somewhat good shelter. Yet she couldn't stop to look more carefully around herself. Her body had been pumped with too much adrenaline at the moment. Though at day she could calm herself down with some witty remarks and cynicism, then right now she had a full-out panic attack.

Yet not a single scream left her mouth, partly because of not having enough strength due to the running, partly by being too terrified that her screaming could draw some unwanted attention from animals. She wouldn't risk it.

So she ran and ran and ran. Even as her breath was out of control and her legs sore and hurt from the stones, tree branches, that she didn't realize that she was bleeding. Her mind though was a different story.

Cold and calculated as she tried to convince herself a few hours ago. A kind of attempt to calm her nerves. Right now it was a storm of the pushed down feelings since her arrival, fear crawling her spine, panic overcoming her body, anxiety rolling in the pit of her stomach, despair in her mind calling for help, which wouldn't come, absolute angst of what would come and attack her, dread that she wouldn't make it, terror that made her ran faster whether it could be good or not she didn't know and utmost horror of the unknown and her lately known dangers, animals and sea monsters.

She felt like crying.

Better yet, she felt like wailing, sobbing, thrashing and everything at once.

But she couldn't.

She had a will. A will to life.

She was too much of a mess to think about anything else than looking for a safe place.

Till then she would stop thinking about unnecessities or for record anything not concerning surviving for the moment.

That was the only reason that she would keep on going despite the mess she was, not only mentally but also physically with hair wildly thrashing into her face limiting her already blurry vision, with mud, dirt, rain, leaves; tree braches protruding as if on purpose scratching her pale skin, sore limbs with shredded sandals that didn't do much to protect her feet and her eyes reddish from where tears poured making her vision even more blurry than the rain.

All of a sudden there was a stark change of the ground. Instead of the wild undergrowth that reached to her ankles or knees at most, the grass reached over her head altogether blocking her sight. She had to slow down, wrestling her way through it. It didn't take long and soon she found herself falling forward. Very fast to say. Then she got faster. Faster. And faster. Till she realized that she was falling off of some kind of a cliff though because of the rain she couldn't quite see it.

What she saw, was a steep rocky hillside with some bushes that turned out to be wild roses. That was the moment she began to scream bloody hell and whatever came to her mind in this situation while wailing in pain as she crashed into the thorny shrubs. The rest of the way she rolled down in light speed. The short trip to the very bottom abruptly stopped when her whole body hit the trunk of a bigger tree sending her into blissful obliviousness.

* * *

As she slowly woke up from her seemingly long nap, she felt more energized than previously. Though the aching and dull pain didn't fade out completely, she could move even if slowly. She could still fell the stiffness of her body, though. The nausea and headache also eased more yet not entire. She took a breath and resolved to check her wounds. Unexpectedly the wounds one her fingers, hands, arms and stomach were only scratches circled with some black and blue bruisers. The hoodie seemed to have done some good protection. Further down were the legs. They were worse than the upper part. Ragged jeans with small blood coming off from various places that were still a bit muddy, big black bruises forming around some of the wounds. The worst part were the feet. Dirty, soggy, filthy with blood streaming from it. Some more gashes and swellings, yet no broken legs luckily. Still, it was not a perfect sight. At all. Especially for someone who didn't take well to any drastic blood stains. She could literally feel the nausea coming back. The only thing that kept her from gagging was heaving a long sigh and closing her eyes.

"All in all it could have been worse…" she concluded. "Though I have to get some dry clothes. And bandages."

Clumsily she ripped off some of her jeans that were tattered enough to rip she made some makeshift bandages for her bleeding feet and legs. As the temperature seemed to continue being warm, this time she would pay attention as who knew if the storm didn't come back, she took off her hoodie and wrung water out of it. The MP4 player clung to her neck so she unwrapped herself from it and securely put the MP4 with the cable and earphones in her front pocket of her jeans. The hoodie though was wrapped around her waist leaving her upper part in only her red tank top.

She glanced at the forest from her right then at the huge oak tree in front and lastly at the vast sea that looked gray perfectly matching with the color of the sky and clouds. "Seems like someone mirrors my mental state," whispered she keeping a blank face.

"Some more accidents like that and I'll get the hang out of having a poker face," she cracked a smile though it turned into a frown as the memories of yesterday's storm came in.

The running, the panic, the crying, the scream. It seemed very fresh to her.

"Alright, to keep on and find a way out of here I'll have to pull myself together. I won't last long if I keep on having mental breakdowns.

What was the saying again: "Smile... tomorrow will be worse."

"Heck, if it's already that bad I can just fake smile and try to get a grip by doing so. Simple freaking mind manipulation. As long as it works and keeps me relatively sane, I don't care," she said out loudly mustering painstakingly a smile on her face that indicated more pain than any real satisfaction.

With that she tried standing up, her sandals in as bad shape as her feet but at least it provided for now some protection for the sole of her feet than if she went barefoot.

It pained her greatly.

Also stubbornly keeping on her smile proved to be difficult even more as it was completely the opposite of her usual frowning or neutral expression very matching for her self-called pessimistic realism. Friendly smiling was only needed when encountered a stranger or out of general politeness though it was really not that much needed.

Though drastic times call drastic measures. And stubbornness was also a way to keep herself alive.

"Up we go," she muttered and began slowly marching forwards while holding the tree. Like that she continued her way holding out her hand from one tree to another to keep herself from falling. Luckily she was on grassy soft ground bordering on also moist sand so the walking wasn't as painful as she expected. After a while she could see the dim red light of the sun setting over the horizon which meant the end of another day. Exactly the 7th day since her arrival and the beginning of the 8th.

Her gaze fixed at the front, her mind fervently going through notions and plans for her unknown future as what to do, where to go, how to survive. But also making her remember the freshly cooked brownies her little brother would make, or the heated discussions what kind of jam was better, her father's smile who made another bad joke regarding school graduates, her moms reddish hair that matched her also fiery temper or the nice scent of her bedroom in her shared apartment with her friend, Alice who also took it upon herself to make her wake up at ungodly hours. And the fact that the possibility of seeing them might be close to none.

She quickly shook her head. No more reminiscing. It would only hurt more.

Her intense gaze faltered for a bit when she took a look at the reddish sun lazily hovering over the sea horizon.

At that moment only one thought filtered through the mass of other ones.

"Will this be the end of me?"


	2. Chapter 2

Elation, salvation, happiness, satisfaction, the feeling of victory.

That's what she felt when she saw not so far away the first vague features of buildings.

After such a long time in isolation, she was having the time of her life at this moment. She might have been an introvert, but it didn't mean she didn't appreciate the achievements of people like food, shower, clothes or bandages.

To talk with oneself for a long time even if it's to keep somewhat sane in such a situation isn't exactly delightful either. Though it felt like forever having spoken to someone. The last two days after the storm left her with a very dry mouth which she could moister through some fruits or the salty sea water. Even more to add to her elation it seemed to be not some village but a harbor town. Though that was only a side-thought.

Her main goal was to reach the town before her legs gave out. With her fiery resolve she walked with a steady pace in order not to worsen her injuries. As she got closer her previous happiness seemed to slowly fade away. At first she thought her mind played her a sick joke but after some time she realized something pretty odd. The people she was coming near were backing away from her. And she didn't even go that near them nor say something. Her smiling face turned into a frown.

"Judging from their reaction it seems I'm in a far worse condition than I thought. But ain't it pretty cold to run away from an injured? And here I thought that people were nicer," she thought as she got closer to the town. Meanwhile she found a good bench so she didn't have to lean on any trees to hold her own which was good as she found a road made of cobblestones.

With some clumsy movements of her own she successfully got onto the road and marched towards the town. Meanwhile her mind was busy thinking about the suspicious behavior of the people.

"I've got a bad feeling about that. Or maybe I'm overreacting," she pondered, "Though one shouldn't ignore the first gut feeling. Something's definitely going on."

Just at the last sentence she reached the entrance and walked forwards looking for a place where one could probably give her some bandages or food. Her suspicions got deeper. The townspeople were either ignorant of her or purposely got out of her way.

"Maybe I'm not looking like a superstar right now but that doesn't mean that they can avoid me," thought she darkly, her frown deepening though she quickly replaced it with a blank face. She tried to straighten her posture as much as she could but she pain in her legs and feet made it difficult for her so she resigned to the half-slumped stance she managed to achieve.

"Not that we want to scare them completely," she thought sarcastically.

During the walk the half-dead on her feet woman noted how the buildings seemed to have been built out of stone with wooden balconies, door-frames and window-stills.

At some point while busy eyeing the town, she reached a large fountain with crystal clear water. Upon seeing it, she gleefully smiled which most likely came off as some wicked smile yet she didn't care.

"At last some clear water I can drink from or wash my wounds," thought she and sped up to it.

Without any further notice she sat down, much to her legs' relief, and took a handful of water to drink. To her surprise she saw her own reflection which was much clearer than that of the sea water that didn't even show her but only her shadow.

A dirtied round face, cheeks covered in sand, her flat a bit pointy nose smeared with mud, the forehead, a wonderful place for acne, was now decorated with dirt and slime that made her fringe stick like glue, her round chin had some grass on it, her normally well-maintained thin oval lips were dried up and cracked, on her face could be found in some places either grass or leaves and her dark brown hair was in complete disarray with leaves and mud protruding like rocks in the mountains making it almost black. The only disturbing factor were her eyes. Usually she had brown eyes, yet for some reason she could see a lighter tone reminding her of caramel. She shook off her thoughts and proceeded to wash her face and wounds. She hummed slightly under her nose as she got in a remarkably better mood though her body was still hurting very much.

When she finished, she nodded in approval at her reflection.

"I might not be Madonna, but it still is much better than a minute ago," she muttered she under her nose. She didn't quite know yet what to do with the rags of her ripped jeans she used as her bandages because she didn't want to use them again for fear of an infection. If she already didn't have any. It was not easy to say as her feet simply felt numb and painfully sore.

With her feet, legs, face and other places relatively cleaned, she sat on the edge of the fountain. The sun came out making the temperature go up so she untied her hoodie, her MP4 player with earphones carefully tucked in a pocket inside her hoodie( she really loved that piece of cloth) and placed it next to her to dry up a bit. A light breeze caressed her cheeks which gave a nice feeling of warmth.

"The nature may be bitch. And not an obedient one at that. Though it sure has some good moments," she said loudly with a content smile. She lay there on her back with her legs resting from the horrendous walk, looking at the sky with occasional glances towards the people.

"So the attitude didn't change much," she knitted her eyebrows, a scowl appearing on her face.

"Whatever. I need to get some food and bandages first."

She looked around for the umpteenth time, in hope that she would find some friendly looking residents that wouldn't mind helping her.

Then, the woman noted a loud shout that came from one of the buildings behind the fountain, probably a tavern. It was a female shriek, an shrilling one at that. It didn't take long and a young girl with ragged clothes, in her teens, probably 15 or 16, ran towards the fountain but got caught in the middle of her way by some roughish-looking gangsters that had a not-so-pleased expression on their faces. The woman quickly sat up and observed the action from the opposite side of the fountain.

"That doesn't look good. Better hide somewhere," she muttered as she crouched down, her hand leaning on the stone ground. From this position, she could make out a gang of 6 bulky man and a crying fragile-looking girl whose arm was being held by one of them. Thanks to the water that came from the fountain, the wounded woman could easier hide and watch them.

At some point the girl winced in pain as the grip got harder.

"That's got to hurt," sympathized she, having been lately an expert at being in pain.

The man on the other side began to shout in annoyance: "You wrench, stupid bitch, thought you could ran away?!"

He was about to punch her head when a hand stopped him. A lean blonde man in a smart business suit bend over the petrified girl and in a sweet voice with a content smile said to her:

"Well, well, what do we have here, it's not nice to ran away from the master. Additionally losing the precious collar that I went the trouble buying one specifically for you.

Even more it's not nice to hurt the said master. See this wound," he pointed towards the small scratch on his left cheek.

"Considering what I have been through I say someone's a crybaby here," thought the woman behind the fountain just as she tried to get herself smaller so no one would see her. On instinct she grabbed her hoodie and tied it around her waist in case the 'situation' escalated thus she had to make a quick escape.

The man continued on with his ramblings about "Not what I thought when I bought you", his voice turning a sharp cold tone sending the nearby people who hid in the houses or taverns altogether with the gang, the girl and the woman a shiver down their spine. The woman pondered about the collar, he mentioned, taking a note of the loosely hanging chains around her wrists and ankles. It didn't take a mastermind to realize what was going about.

"A slave and a master," she concluded inwardly wondering what to do.

"For now I should hide here, not a good idea drawing attention. Though they are most likely more intent on the girl than anything."

Her gaze intensified on the small frame of said teen. She felt utmost pity for her.

"Not that I can help right now. More than help I would worsen her situation," she sighed lastly. There was no way she was able to overpower 7 man in her condition. She had to resign herself to watching as the young girl got more and more horrified, tears flowing down like flood. Her conscience gnawed on her mind yet there was no other way.

"Heck, I have never been one to help, even back home I was hesitant. I know I'm the worst and I'll have to live with that. Man, I have really never been one with a golden heart," she mumbled under her nose with a scowl while silently watching them when the blonde pulled on the red hair of the girl, making the watching woman grimace at the sight. Just as she wanted to close her eyes and be over it, the blonde man took a gun out of his jacket and pointed at the trembling girl.

"Now, you've been a bad girl. And you know what we do with bad girls?"

An evil wicked smile appeared on his face while it spread onto the fellow man. Like a band of wolves cornering a new-born calf.

Just as he wanted to pull the trigger, the woman shouted.

Her last thought being: "I must be really that stupid."

* * *

A loud shout echoed throughout the area, even louder than the girl's previous shriek. Her head began to feel pressure from the shouting, but continued on. This brought attention to her spot which she escaped from by crawling on the ground nearing towards the back of the gang. She stopped shouting altogether and tried to quickly stand up onto her wobbly feet. This didn't get unnoticed by the others. Everything was like a minute ago with the hard grip on the girl's hair who in turn grabbed the hand of the blonde to lessen the pain, though their heads were directed at her.

All the attention was currently on her. As she stood there trying to minimalize her trembling, she noted a visible sign of confusion on the faces of everyone present. She managed to gather all her strength and put on a straight smile, which instead of charming, looked more strained. Out of habit she took a long breath to calm her nerves and walked towards the man with the ever-present smile. She stopped exactly 2 feet away from the blonde, who raised an eyebrow and was about to shout angrily when she put up a palm in front of him.

"Mister, excuse me but do you know where the nearest pharmacy is? I'm not very familiar with this place," she asked in a as much as she could friendly tone. Inwardly she cursed herself for all the idiocy and stupidity that from all things she asked about that, yet given that she had acted on impulse she knew that nothing better would have come up in her mind.

"Or maybe some place with food for free? I have been looking and looking and looking yet cannot find any decent place. Well, I don't want to judge but the people here don't seem very friendly at all. I have been for some time and no one even asked if anything was wrong or if everything is fine," she continued rambling and complaining. She could literally feel the pressure and gazes from the townspeople with the all-round question that even the men in front of her plagued: "Is she suicidal?"

Even she asked herself that but came with no answer. During her stay behind the fountain she had considered grabbing the girl and trying to escape taking the road though that wouldn't end good as they could have caught up to them. But an idea had struck her. "Maybe cause confusion, grab the girl and run into some people. The gangsters would have to go past each person which would slow them down for a bit. Problem is that we're alone and everyone is hiding behind benches or in the houses."

She had seen them hide the moment the girl ran towards the fountain.

"If there is none here, then we can run to the tavern. The better as I won't have enough strength to outrun them and any obstacle will slow them down. Now I have to grab the girl and run to the nearest tavern."

She knew that the plan had lots of holes and it was far from perfect, but that was the only thing she came up with during the time between hiding, shouting and currently rambling about anything but nothing altogether.

It must have been a minute since she began her "act". A visible vain popped up and pulsed on the head of the guy with the smart suit. His face colored red in anger and cut her off shouting: "Now stop with this shit or I'm gonna shoot your head off."

At that she froze.

The man certainly wasn't joking. Tears well up in her eyes and as theatrically as she could, began trembling and begging the man to spare her life. Which wasn't difficult because the panic in her had made her shake even before her shouting yet had tried to suppress this feeling.

She had reminded herself of the storm: "Nothing's going to be better if I keep panicking. I need to stay as calm and focused as I can."

That was the second promise she made to herself since arriving, the first being to smile at all costs.

Not that it helped her currently.

The panic was a natural thing that would cease with just some words.

She saw the widespread annoyance on the gangster's feature and noticed the firm grip on the red hair of the girl, who was absolutely confused as well as shocked by the whole ordeal. The woman grabbed the man's hand, thus freeing the girl, and wailed: "Please, please spare this life. I only have one. For such a fine young manly handsome man you have to let me go, please."

She placed herself between the girl and the blonde and took the girl's arm. The other man were still surrounding them. She chose to let go of the blonde's hand. This time she began to run from one to another grinning like a madwoman while giving the compliments.

"Oh you wonderful beautiful beings that are the manliest of all, " she praised them.

In her mind she was having a massive panic attack as she slowly ran out of any ideas. She tried remembering any literature that would help her with any praises though only came up with bad Shakespearian coupled with her own wordings that could have been a lot better.

For now she tried making her way towards the nearest place with people. Which would be the tavern that the girl had ran out. She hoped that they wouldn't notice the way she made towards the tavern but the hope died very quickly when the blonde took out his gun and pointed at them. Two bulky man coming up to both of their side.

"Now play time's over you bitches!"

Just when he yet again tried to pull the trigger the woman bit him in his hand as she had previously came up to him with her lame "act", pushed him onto the ground and ran to the tavern with the girl in tow.

It took 3 seconds for the others to recover from the surprise, so currently they were dangerously coming closer. On instinct she pulled the smaller female in front of her so she wouldn't get grabbed by them firstly if they caught them.

Thankfully they reached the entrance and in an also mad dash ran to the counter. The 18-year old noticed a staircase behind it. In the next minutes they rushed through one corridor to another with 6 bulky man and 1 blonde on their heels. At one point the smaller girl tucked on the hem of her shirt while pointing to one of the rooms. They turned left and ended in a western styled room, that the wounded woman took as a dead end. The red head though led her to the window and showed a very narrow passage.

The ledges of the window were long enough for them to step on and go down onto the ground. The first to go was the smaller one who while climbing down placed her foot onto the protruding lamp on the other side and jumped down. The process was repeated by the older woman who in the mean time had barricaded the door with a table and two chairs. The moment she placed her second foot onto the ground the door busted open. Without wasting time the two got through the narrow passage and onto what seemed like the main road with lots of people. Though they didn't stop. They raced all the way down to the docks with the younger teen navigating the older. On the way the 18-year old realized the bloody footprints she left behind.

"Oh, shit" she swore loudly enough for the younger to hear. Then turned to the red head.

"We don't have time. They are gonna find us if we don't do something about the footprints," she gasped halfway visibly out of breath from all the running. The other one nodded in response also out of breath leading them to the docks.

It seemed that their adrenaline and stress levels wouldn't go down for the next good hours.


	3. Chapter 3

The harbor was very lively most of the time as it concentrated the town's whole trade.

So bumping into more than a few people there was bound to happen during their mad dash. There were lots of ships, some smaller and some being gigantic, the older would be more surprised to see if not for the current situation. They ran down the stone road till they reached the sandy beach, which the 18-year old recognized as the loathed hell. This time she was the one to navigate them to the forest where she found a good hiding place. They waited a bit to catch some breath. They vaguely heard some noises but knew better than to put their guard off.

"It's only a matter of time till they find us," she informed the younger when she caught some air. The latter nodded in response. The former continued on: "With my bloody footprints on the ground and ours on the sand they can find us if they follow the trace. I take that they aren't that stupid."

The latter viciously nodded her head to the statement. The woman smiled a bit at that.

"Good to know who we are escaping from."

The older was leaning onto the tree trunk while the other was crouching tightly behind her as the former was still holding onto her arm.

"Now is a good time to think of some plan," muttered the obviously tired and wounded female. At the mutter she felt someone tucking her shirt. It was the red head who pointed at some small ship that wasn't that far away. It was a typical fishing boat with two sails. One on the mast and the other near the front of the ship. It seemed quite simple at first glance.

"Seems good but," she furrowed thoughtfully, "I don't know how to steer a boat at all."

The reply she got was a small happy smile with some glint in the eyes.

"Well," she herself cracked a smile, "Not like we have any other choice."

Before they made their way to the boat the older couldn't help but smirk.

"You're not exactly the most talkative, what?"

She only got a small red blush as an answer to her remark.

Carefully assessing the situation the two slowly made their way to the boat. It didn't look like someone would check up on the small ship any time soon yet they tried to quickly get on. While the red haired girl seemed pretty knowledgeable with the ropes and the boat, the brunette made sure no one was closing in on them. When everything was ready the older hopped onto the deck as the other untied the rope from the pole. Content on the done work they set sail.

Meanwhile the sun began to set in with various shades of red, orange and pink. They went a bit further into the sea yet enough to see the detail of the port town. At first the older couldn't help but worry about creatures like the one she saw some time ago, shrugged it off after the first minutes. The image still made her shiver. Trying to calm herself after such a long day she resigned to watching the sea and the girl who was busy with navigating the ship. At first she wanted to help out, though the smaller girl made it clear that she didn't have to. Even better because as a complete layman in terms of ships and sea she worried about doing more damage than help. Additionally the girl seemed to be really elated at the fact of steering the boat.

They remained in utter silence, only the soft clashing of waves and screeches of seagull were heard. After a while the brunette decided to say something.

"You're very good at steering. Not that I'm an expert," she put on a sheepish face. The red head's face turned into a deep red. She couldn't help but chuckle. "You remind me of a very ripe delicious tomato, you know."

Said person got even more red and began to shake for a bit. Seeing this she put on a goofy expression and added: "I didn't mean to insult you. It's just that I haven't eaten in a while and all the running makes me hungry."

As on cue their stomach's made a significant growl. A moment of silence before a heartily laughter erupted from the older and small giggles the younger.

"Seems like we both have it rough. We'll need to get some food. And bandages. And clothes," cited the brunette. Inwardly she was a bit happy that she wasn't that alone despite her introversion as she liked to say.

"I'm sorry for scaring you back then. I must have acted like some stupid insane madwoman. I must be pretty stupid myself. Though at least we got alive out of it."

To her surprise she heard some stuttering for the first time from the other side where the girl sat down with one hand on the steer.

"Not at all," mumbled a small soft voice from under the nose while a mad blush appeared on the face.

"What?" the older raised an eyebrow.

"You aren't stupid. You saved me back then. You are a wonderful person. Thank you for saving my life. I'm indebted to you, Miss."

The girl bowed as deep as she could while holding onto the steer.

On the other side a smile graced the brunettes features.

"You're welcome. I may not be the best person though thanks for the compliment. Back then I didn't want to move from my place out of fear."

"But you still saved me," countered the younger straightening herself.

"Out of impulse, sheer stupidity and some dumb luck."

"But-" cut the redhead in.

"But I don't regret it that much as we got alive out of it. Though I still remain a stupid idiot. No buts." The brunette added shortly. She was too tried to argue and was still sure it could have gone very bad if not for the luck. She sat still, stretched her legs to see blood dripping from her feet. This time it didn't shake her up. She just took some clean-looking rag that was in the front of the ship in a sack, ripped it in half and began cleaning her wound while with the other half she bandaged the wounded places.

"At least the problem about the bandages resolved itself," she muttered contently with a pleased smile. She knew since long that in such environment she couldn't expect much. She still had a long way till she would get into her calm and composed self though it currently didn't matter that much as she was very relieved that they were alive and somewhat healthy.

They went into the comfortable silence again though the older could swear she heard a "I still find you wonderful, Miss."

* * *

They drifted till it became night. Both were very tried out so they decided to dock at the next island they reached. They managed to push the boat to the sandy shore. Neither of them had any power to look for some food for that matter so they decided to call the day. They nestled themselves in the makeshift bed in the boat they made from all the few rags, some smaller towels and luckily a blanket which they found in the corners of the ship. Strangely the temperature was higher at night in this place than at the previous island yet shrugged it off. Nonetheless the older packed the younger, with her face towards the brunette's chest and cuddled to get some warmth.

"Maybe I'm not the friendliest out here but it is still cold so we better use each other to warm ourselves."

The other simply nodded, the blush spreading to her neck. They remained perfectly still not wanting to sleep despite the clawing need to drift off to dreamland.

"Where are your parents?" asked the older in a hushed tone. In response the girl cast her eyes down with a sad expression.

"They are…" she muttered. Seeing as it was quite painful for the younger she added:

"No need to say it."

The other twitched but quickly said in a hushed tone.

"No, it's not just … My mother has been dead for 5 years now. And my father is out on the sea somewhere, I haven't seen him since I was 4. Though it's not bad. I was living with my grandparents and aunt and uncle. They have a cute baby."

"Was?" the lack of present tense was indication enough that something must have changed in the girl's life. And definitely not for the better.

"Well, I , me…" she took a breath. "A year ago a few bandits came to our village and robbed anything. Jewelries, money, food, …" her voice became quieter till she could only let out a whisper.

"Humans…"

As on cue the older cuddled tighter, indicating to stop. She was aware that human trafficking existed whether she liked or not. It was one of the most prominent trade on the black market though it was different when one was talking about it out of experience, even more when it was technically a child, no matter if nine or sixteen. Back home everyone was aware of this simple fact. That was how she was raised.

Coming back to her current conversation she asked:

"You want to go home?"

Which sounded more like a fact than a question.

As a reply she got a slow nod.

Now she was torn. The brunette also wanted to find some way home though from the looks of it, it seemed that she was in a complete other world. If the giant monster sea creature or the odd stone buildings in the town and lack of any technologies like cars were any indication. She knew the urge to go home. The desire which she suppressed in order not to get any more panic attacks or turn into a complete wailing mess. Somehow she had a hunch that simply "going home" wouldn't be so easy to do.

Yet on the other side she saw a girl with the same longing. The redhead reminded her of herself just not so long ago though only calmer, more dejected, void of any hope to reach home. She felt like they were some homesick kids wanting to get back into their cozy beds as soon as possible. Though it was different. They weren't on some simple school trip in a different city.

No, this was a pure jungle. With the vast sea around them. She couldn't just phone someone of her relatives to pick her up as she got lost on the way.

This time she had to find the road herself. Even when there was a possibility of the road back home not existing. She could only but hope.

'Hope often deludes the foolish man,'

'But is still the last to die.'

That was her situation, in which she could only survive and still not find the way home.

The small girl's situation looked different in comparison to hers.

The redhead still had a chance of going back, she could still see her relatives despite the slim chances of survival in these harsh circumstances. She was more familiar with this world. Even if the brunette took the ship to somewhere, she would sink right away and she knew that. The girl though knew her way with the boat and got them safely to another island. She could fulfill her dream of reaching home and the older wouldn't stand in the way.

"Mom would skin me alive for letting a young girl here alone," she thought, the image of her mother raving about morals which the older girl tried to respect despite her obvious pessimism and added layers of cynicism.

She looked at the small girl in her hands. Meager, slim, a seemingly frail posture.

Truthfully she had no chance of surviving.

Then again the woman remembered her own bruises, bloody legs and the mess she was.

Well, her chances seemed to be even below 0 at the moment.

So she made her resolve.

She would help the girl go back home.

Not out of some compassion or sudden interest in being selfless. Or whatever bullshit she ever heard about love and helping each other in need. She wasn't stupid enough to believe in the good sides of other people. Especially after today's escapade in town and a fling with a gun to the head. For now she deemed it enough to call it trauma.

Yet she felt some guilty pangs of even thinking about abandoning the kid on the island. It just didn't seem … right. Or maybe she was clearly overthinking things and just had to add with her philosophical approach another layer of confusion to her poor overheated mind.

Only one thing cleared in her mind.

"Seems like I'm not made to be completely evil, what a shame," she smirked, carefully making sure not to wake up the asleep girl.

The other side was more practical. As said, the redhead knew more about this world and had navigating skills. While the other didn't have any astonishing abilities, she knew that she could protect her to some extent, like bailing her out of situations like the one today. It also seemed quite soothing to have another person by your side, especially after such experiences. The woman couldn't quite imagine herself as a center or oasis of calmness but it seemed that the girl in her arms had managed to regain her voice even if it was only quiet muttering. It did not take a the child expert or teenage expert in this case to realize the obvious that she had been through hard times. Not that the older one hadn't been through any either.

She let out a long sigh.

Whether she would do it out of guilt, practical use of the girl's knowledge and some kind of protection of said girl in turn for the knowledge, simple compassion or even a more selfish reason, she didn't know. It had been yet another long day in the time she got here. She would find later some better excuse to her sorry mind. What was clear though was that she would stay with the redhead.

Additionally the long days of isolation also had it downsides to the self-proclaimed "kind of introvert who doesn't mind people, but doesn't adore them that much".

"To think that with such an attitude I managed to gather some friends," she wondered a bit, nostalgia filling her mind, yet quickly shrugged it off.

"Tomorrow will be an equally tiring day. Hopefully I will remain my composure. Need to catch some sleep for now."

She had a feeling that in the nearest future her morals and whole personality would take in some places a 180° turn.

With that thought she went to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning proved to be an also sunny cold day. As soon as they got up they split their duties. The 18-year old gathered some fruits and nuts from the forest of the new clearly too small to be inhabited island which didn't differ from the previous one in that matter, the younger one checked their equipment of the ship and made everything ready to set sail. But before setting sail they ate some breakfast if these few peaches, an apple, a few nuts and a few kiwi, to the older's surprise as the island didn't seem to have such variety in fruits, could be counted as a meal. It was a very nice comfortable silence they settled into, though it got interrupted by the older.

"I still haven't asked about your name?" Well, not that they had any time to sit down to catch a breath.

A small blush crept up on both of their faces.

"Erika, Erika Cromwell."

"Anna, Golden Anna. You can call me Ann," she put up a big smile making the younger girl blush.

" Lady Ann," stuttered the girl. The woman furrowed and repeated: "Ann. Just Ann. And I don't take anything else. If we are going to be together from now on then repeat: Ann."

"Ann," she mumbled shyly. Anna thought to herself in exasperation: "At least some progress."

As on cue Erika's eyes widened and in a shocked but still quiet tone asked: "Together?"

Ann raised an eyebrow. "You don't think that as a responsible adult at age 18 I will let alone a small child in such a dangerous environment."

Her face was immediately brighter and lit up like the one of a child on Christmas when opening a present. She would have said something more about, but let it pass as Ann put up a hand as sign not to say anything more. She only added: "It's natural. At least in my home country."

"It wouldn't be appropriate to tell her I considered leaving her alone, though. As well as saying "in my world". The girl is stressed enough. " Ann shook her head as she at her own thoughts.

She took the lack of response as a good thing and she took another bite of an apple. It remained silent for a while.

To her surprise she heard some mumbling with some hint of anger or more likely irritation.

"I'm not that small," she made out from the muttering. It took the younger girl some time to muster up enough courage to say it out loud.

"Really, then how old are you?" asked flatly Ann with a hint of mischief in the eyes which startled Erika who didn't expect to have been heard.

"15, in few months 16" answered she shyly.

The answer was curt and firm.

"Also still underage. I don't know much about your customs but in my homeland you would be considered at most a teenager, most certainly not an adult." Not that she was better in that regard, but who knew what laws applied here.

"But-"

"No buts. I don't care how you've been treated or viewed as but for me you are a teenager. A very smart and skilled one but still one, " with that she took another bite of the apple.

The last remark made Erika blush a very crimson red, as red as her own hair with only green eyes sticking out.

The older could only smirk at that. Then she realized.

"Where did you live before, well, coming here? I mean the, eehm, location."

"On Cricket island, " said she automatically, yet saw the confusion on the other's face.

"It's a small green spring island in the near of the Sabaody Archipelago."

"Sorry, but I don't recognize any of the names," she put on an apologetically face.

"It's well-known throughout the seas," said Erika wondering how someone couldn't know about it yet didn't press much about it. She still adored the woman in front of her though was too embarrassed to confess.

"Let's say I'm from a very unique land," explained Ann. Then thought, "It might not be the best excuse. It doesn't seem like she is going to press me about it though."

With that their conversation ended altogether finishing their breakfast.

After the meal they packed some more rations of edible food, this time consisting of a bit more fruit than before, Ann proudly looked at the stash hidden in a cleaned container in the small cabin-like space, she seriously was getting better at the looking-for-provisions-thing, and they pushed with some difficulty the boat to the water. They calmly drifted on the sea surface, the sun shining and the waves softly clashing at the boat.

The weather seemed very good in Ann's opinion, though Erika ensured her that it could be deceiving as they were in the other part of the Grand line, the New World.

The older simply pressed for further information. It wasn't like she had to be embarrassed about asking. Better ask than know nothing. Though she felt some shame at having some basic knowledge of the world.

The younger, opting to ignore the mixed emotions displayed on her savior's face, happily explained the various islands, how they divided into autumn, spring, winter and summer islands, the need of a Log Pose, the tricky weather that could drastically change, which got a remark form the older "Realized so much," thinking back about the storm, while making the other giggle. Further she went on about how the world consisted mostly of islands, and that it was divided into North, West, South, East Blue, the weakest of all, the Paradise, Red line, Calm Belt, the Reverse Mountain, and lastly the Sabaody Island, their destination from where they could easily go to Cricket Island.

"So much information. It definitely is not going to be easy," Ann thought letting out a long sigh. She took a glance at the gleeful expression, noting the firm hold on the steer.

"You seem to know a lot, Erika," she smirked, beginning to get a basic understanding of teasing. The reaction was very predictable: A small blush and down casted eyes.

"It's pretty common knowledge," she remarked in her usual shy manner. Though she wondered where her savior could be from as not to know at least some of it. As if the older could read her mind, she swiftly replied: "Well, I'm from a very mysterious land."

With that she changed the topic. The redhead didn't try to pry any further as not to be rude to the one who saved her life. But it still piqued her interest. She violently brushed off these thoughts. As for now she was indebted to the woman and wouldn't be an annoyance to her by asking any more than the older would have liked.

"But still, you are very good at navigating as you say for myself. You looked very confident while steering the ship, and it seemed that you've done such things in the past," commented the dark haired brunette.

"Oh that's because…" squeaked the former in response. The older, thoughtfully waited out a moment for the other to gather her thoughts as she leaned on the mast so she saw the front on her left side, and the girl with the steer on her right. Her legs were stretched out to ease her pain that had significantly dropped leaving a dull aching.

A while later she answered.

"Before the accident," she shivered at the thought. "My uncle taught me a lot about geography and my aunt knew the seas and told me a lot about her time when she was in the base and also how you steer a boat." A small smile formed on her face thinking back about that time.

"The base?" raised Ann an eyebrow.

The other nodded.

"She was a marine, before getting married and settling down with her husband and having a baby. Though it was my grandfather who showed me how to sail properly. He is a fisherman, but now he doesn't sail that much now that he is older."

The conversation went on about family and such though the two also talked about various other things as the weather, geography. The mood remained very light-hearted as the younger was careful enough not to put any pressure on the older with subjects like home as not to upset the older. Ann caught on halfway and was thankful for the thoughtfulness from Erika.

"I might not be good to explain my 'situation'," she sighed inwardly. "But it is better than lying to her. My story would most likely scare her off or she would take me for a liar."

The sea gently rocked the small boat back and forth providing the two residing girls a feeling of tranquility which they both decided to use as much as possible due to the unpredictability of the New World. They could very well have ended up in the eye of a cyclone in the span of a second.

Currently they were in some unlocated waters though according to Erika they might be in the middle of the New World or optimistically speaking not as far away looking back at the location of the island where they met. So for now they would have to get a map and more importantly a Log pose, an item very much needed in order to locate the next destination. This seemed to be an interesting object as it dealt with magnetic fields, at last something from Ann's expertise. The plan was to later locate their own position and then get to the Sabaody Archipelago, a kind of waypoint. From there they would get to their primary destination.

Though it was a simple speculation from her side. They could have been very well nearer their goal.

"Speculation or not it's still better than simply going on without much idea. Let's look on the bright side. If we think that we have to cover a lot more distance and end up doing so then we wouldn't have much surprise as that was how we planned. And if we made it in a much shorter time than expected then the better for us."

She shot her a wide grin which outwardly turned into a somewhat smirk. It seemed like a curse for her facial expressions. Luckily the action seemed to have worked on the younger as she also brightened up a bit.

"For now it would be better to look out for any danger and also for potential help," Ann said lastly.

"The best would be to find a marine ship," added the younger in a quiet tone as per usual while fumbling with some rope, but never letting go of the steer. The older nodded thoughtfully.

"That would be the best outcome overall. On the other side it would be good to reach an island. Hopefully the people won't be like the ones previously, " she thought. Currently she was occupied by some larger ropes which by the explanation of Erika were very important when hitching. An idea struck her.

"Say, maybe you might know, why is it that the people at our previous island reacted so…" she asked. Mentally she added: "That wouldn't qualify as normal behaviour."

The other shuffled awkwardly by the steer.

"Well that would be because…" the girl visibly struggled with the words. Seeing the obvious distress, the older smiled back prodding her further. As much as she didn't like to cause the smaller one any more discomfort, her curiosity beat her conscience.

"Because?" her eyebrow raised.

"Well, the people don't like it if, well, other people with your previous appearance come up. Because you looked like a …"

The was struggling very hard to voice it in the best way possible nearly crumbling down. She let out a sigh and put on a cheery smile.

"That's enough. I know now. It was mere curiosity. Sorry to startle you."

She was to go back to untangling the ropes when a squeaky slightly panicked voice came from the girl,

"No, no. I'll say it. It's because there are lots of …"

She took a deep breath and in a quiet voice said: "Servants. And you looked like them. The cuts and struggling I mean."

The small girl had her head down as though in shame for voicing her opinion. On the other side Ann had a blank face with a tint of surprise.

"Servant?" she wondered taking some time to proceed with the information. It took some time till it downed on her what the girl's implications meant. The collars, masters, the peoples weird behavior towards her.

"How could I have not realized that?" she scolded herself mentally. Though it was unsurprising considering there wasn't much time to ponder about what had happened. Her expression must have apparently darkened as the smaller girl had her head even deeper down than previously.

"Heck, must have scared her," she realized. Quickly she brushed off the unpleasant thoughts and managed to flash her a wide smile. Of course it came of as a little bit shaky.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you remember it. I won't ask any more. Don't worry."

Her tone was very apologetic and quite awkward which the younger immediately caught on. To the other's surprise Erika broke into a flare of small giggles. Ann could only stare in disbelief, not knowing how she elicited such a reaction before she also began to laugh heartily when the young girl tried to stifle her own laughing. The mood improved considerably even though small raindrops began to fall down. The topic long ago abandoned.

Lucky for them it was some light rain. That didn't mean it would cease for the time being. There wasn't any strong wind so they only could rely slightly on the sail. The small talk abruptly stopped when the younger voiced her concern.

"I think that we are coming nearer an island."

"That's good," Ann happily added with a wide smile.

"But I'm not sure. Something big is there." She knitted her eyebrows and tried to take a better look at what was what seemed like miles away.

The other followed suit but could only furrow.

"I don't see anything."

Mentally she added: "Stupid glasses that aren't here when needed."

They drifted on the water surface for a while when they saw a big ship or their outlines on the horizon.

Ann quickly sprung up in glee.

"A ship is coming!" she proclaimed a bit loud for the younger.

Now that prospect brightened their mood immensely. Though it didn't mean that they could be off guard yet. Without any other glasses, a telescope or the likes as the boat had been clearly bare of any of the sort. They had suspected that all the boats in the harbor were bare of valuable things as not to get robbed.

This only left them to furrow as best as they could and see what kind of ship it was.

In less than a minute the younger shouted in glee: "A merchant ship!"

At that they shot up and began to shout with all their might to catch the other ship's attention.

To their luck it seemed to be steering to the small boats direction.

"Wait…" said Ann in an unusually concentrated tone. As if on cue the other one narrowed her eyes to get a better look at the approaching ship.

"I think its …" on that the younger's face eased a bit more. "Yes, a merchant ship. They can help us."

They sprang up yet again and began shouting, waving to get the ships attention.


	5. Chapter 5

In one moment they gathered up some cloth, mostly rags, and made a makeshift flag, furiously waving it in their hands. Relief flooded through their veins when their mad dance on their small boat proved to be a success when the large ship turned towards them.

To their luck it didn't take long and ship brushed by the boats side, stopping for the brief moment as not to leave the boat behind.

A rope ladder was thrown to the girls with additional 3 thick ropes.

"Tie it to your boat!" The clear command made the girls dash to quickly get the job done. "Good thing that Erika taught me the ties," Ann thought while tying the last knot on the front of their boat albeit a bit clumsily though hard enough for the ship not to drift away.

Not a moment later did they get onto the deck with the small boat securely tagging along on the 3 thick lines.

A few minutes of being questioned about how they ended up here, what happened coupled with some basic introductions, both of them were given a blanket and a mug of hot chocolate. The captain, a seemingly in her 50ies, woman with sharp features, a very characteristic pointy nose, brown hair with stripes of grey, a bit on the lean side with her height ending just above Ann's head, kindly smiled at them.

"Well, you two, you had luck we were here. Normally it's rare for any ships to cruise here as it's a region full of sea kings. Good for you that we had to do a detour to deliver some goods."

She latched onto the explanation of the territory having heard the girls' problems regarding their vague understanding of their location from their story.

It looked like the merchant's destination, Busket island to unload their cargo there, was roughly 3 or 4 weeks from the Sabaody Archipelago. Yet the most reassuring part was that the captain, Helen Brosnic, told them that they could come with them as the island was about 2 or 3 days away. It brightened their mood considerably and the girls both bowed down to profusely thank for the rescue only to be brushed off by the merchant captain that they could help on the ship while they were here.

Later on Ann and Erika would hear from some more light-hearted crew members about the almost unbelievably shy nature of Mrs Brosnic who had a soft spot for children or anyone younger which she tried to hide with a harsh exterior.

Seeing as it was almost late in the afternoon, the girls were led to the dinning area where they got at last a hot soup and some old bread.

Some of the older men liked to joke that they would have to wait till they reached the island for fresh bread and vegetables. But considering how little the both of them had to eat the previous weeks, the girls simply ignored them and devoured, some happy moans or squeaks in between, the goulash made from old tomatoes and sausages. The surprise of the members grew all the more when they saw tears dripping from Ann's face, snot rushing from her nose and the vibrant blush on the cheeks of Erika whose green eyes shone an unnatural amount of gratefulness.

Someone, a woman, seemingly in her mid-to-late twenties, dark skin and afro-locks, good-naturedly joked whether they had been eating only nuts or fruits.

The glistening unshed tears in both their eyes left no room to joke as both of them looked ready to kneel down with their utmost thanks for the given meal which made the rougher boys cringe in awkward smiles.

Somehow from then on everything seemed a little bit too rushed for Ann and even Erika to properly comprehend.

Afterwards left the girls breathless as they were shown a bed where they could sleep, it turned out that there weren't enough beddings so they would have to deal with sharing though truthfully at this point Anna told them that they would be happy enough to sleep on the ground as long as they had blankets and a roof above their heads.

"Really, if anything I could kiss this floor, heck, even the whole room after having spent too much time in that poor excuse of a beach. Or likely the living imitation of hell," Ann added without much care too tired to think straight.

The ensuing laughing seemed to be contagious as almost everyone in the large cabin, that could put up at least 15-20 beds alone, were chuckling, snickering or smirking.

When the girls finally sat down, Ann managed to get a proper look at the people and the room.

From her previous inquiries, this side of the ship housed the women, some mechanics, mainly nurses and the cooks, while the left side housed the men who were also divided in terms of ability and strength raging from cooks, mechanic and navigation to the simple fighters and powerhouses that helped carry the heavy cargo; the center was used for the many storages.

Somehow the women with whom they would be sharing the room for the next 2 or 3 days took their appearance (Erika, her long-sleeved blue work dress, that could be seen in factories, torn and dirty and Ann with her non-fashionably ripped jeans that made her legs and feet even more worse off while specks of blood dotted her attire from waist down) as a sort of challenge, giving them some of their old work pants, shirts and surprisingly even a pair of boot-like shoes albeit pretty worn-down with one sole needing to be reattached as it tried to come off. Nonetheless Ann was over the moon seeing them as her bloodied feet would get their much needed protection.

"Screw the overprized converse, pumas, now that is true gold," she grinned maliciously, making a few wonder about her strange behavior. The only one used to it, though only a bit deterred at the mad glint, remained Erika who was also tackled by the group of women, failingly blushing a nice shade of crimson almost matching the vibrant shade of angry red of her hair.

That was how Erika ended up with a grey t-shirt, hanging off like a rag, and a jeans blouse for the cold nights and big brown cotton pants stolen from the men compartment by some vigorous woman. The only part left were her more or less maintained tennis shoes, to which Ann managed to gather from her mumbling words that it was the pair which she had stolen from the 'guy'. As a sort of encouragement she put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it extra reassuringly getting a shy smile from her. Of course the crowding females, seeing the very cute face of the younger, simply squealed in delight, hugging the Erika till she couldn't breathe.

The next fashion victim was of course Anna who won the fight to keep her beloved hoodie with zipped pockets mostly used as a bag for her earphones and MP4 player, a sad remainder of her world. Yet couldn't protest much when she saw the nice pair of black soft cotton pants. The good quality albeit a bit worn out from the too much use made her droll despite its rough softness in comparison to the scratchy stuff of her beloved jeans which material couldn't withstand the force of nature and her own blood combined.

She vividly blushed at how everyone teased her, "Love at first sight." Which made for another wave of laughter.

But the best of all was the proper treatment of her and Erika's wounds.

Nothing could beat a proper first aid despite the frightening sternness of the 40-year old nurse who oozed a deathly tension while giving Ann, as she was the older one of the duo, a tongue-lashing of her life from the carelessness of bandaging with dirty cloth to the luck which helped her not getting a serious infection from all that. Ann, hunched shoulders, simply couldn't care less about the words being too engrossed at having contact with people who cared and were nice.

Thankfully Erika got off with a less strict treatment both due to her visible shyness and ugly fist-shaped bruising mostly on her stomach and back. It seemed that the nurses and other women caught on Erika's rough past judging from the sympathetic stares or outright disturbed ones.

Yet Ann's gratefulness was directed to their tact of not asking more than necessary.

After all the hovering and treatment coupled with the excited shrill of the woman, Ann, and by default Erika as well, thanked them for the umpteenth time and told them they better go to bed even though it was still early evening. No one questioned that seeing as both were simply swaying on their legs, too exhausted to even get to the bathing point.

Even the snickering at the 'adorable, very cute picture' of the two embracing each other on the screeching bed couldn't force them to care much.

After all that Ann couldn't remember the last time she was this socially exhausted.

* * *

The first thought that struck Ann upon seeing the sluggish movement indicating the half-awake state of the redhead was: "Bath. We both need it."

It seemed like a sheer coincidence that the first to be seen when they woke up were the lone mechanic women, 3 of them, putting on their blue overalls at the crack of dawn.

They smiled at them, or more at the tangled mess of limbs stretching out in all directions, visibly turning to the door.

Ann quickly stood up, crashing head fist to the ground from the jelly-like legs, eliciting soft laughter.

"It feels like I'm the walking joke of this world," she thought while getting up to her feet. Gulping down the embarrassment and some shyness of her, she asked them where the bathroom was.

And just like that Anna and Erika ended up following them to the nearest bathroom, which turned out to be 5 stalls and an adjoined toilet next door. Briefly explaining them the mechanism of the toilet and the showers, giving them some spare towels and some grey soap, they left them to their own devices, as they were on a tight schedule.

It turned out that taking a shower, a mundane and easy chore for the modern people, after such a long time of having to survive with no usable water, was a challenge on its own also due to the freshly bandaged wounds.

At first Anna wasn't sure whether she should unwrap the bandages or not, yet seeing that they both had only bruises or light wounds that would only end up bleeding, she decided to take them off.

Carefully she unwrapped the ones around the redheads torso and stomach, neatly putting the bandages on one of the shelves in front of the stalls. For a quick moment she had to pause at the ugly sight of the hand-shaped and foot-shaped markings.

Then she proceeded to her own legs yet was stopped by Erika who seemed to want to return the favor. The bloodied bandages could only land in the trash bin near the toilet.

After that the most embarrassing followed, namely stripping and getting to the shower.

Being a very, very private person, the next moments her face flourished with a healthy flush, embarrassment shaking her body. The awkwardness didn't abandon her even during the shower. Her normally healthy albeit rounded body, seemed to have lost some of her nice chubbiness, leaving unhealthy patches of flesh hanging off in some parts of her body with ribs in plain sight, all in all marred with bigger or smaller scratches mainly from the storm of her first island, the most mortifying though thankfully very few smaller ones being on her inner thighs and lower stomach yet too close to her intimate sphere for her liking.

Somehow her state, both mental and physical, didn't much differ from Erika's.

Overall she had to scrub her with the grating piece of soap every part of her body to get rid off the dirt.

Her dark brown hair seemed to have also changed, even after much washing with the blissfully but scorching hot water (it really left her squeaking the first minutes) and the barest hints of the grey mush, from the dark chocolate to a more brownish black. Or the mirror and her mind seemed to like to play games with her.

Having been done with the much needed attention to her whole body, she turned off her shower and grabbed the hanging towel from the stall door, thoroughly drying herself off and putting back on her newly gained cloths, though having the same unwashed underwear did give off a strange feeling. The same thoughts were currently shared by the younger one.

"Well, think they are gonna let us wash our underwear?"

* * *

The answer was yes, having been cornered by the same terrifying nurse after getting back to the cabin.

Ann, and judging by the equally red-faced Erika, didn't know what could be more shameful. Hearing the same old lecture about proper hygiene, especially out in the seas, which Ann mentally thanked that she did get to know very well having spend her first days using only thoroughly very clean leaves (which even then she was reluctant to use) as toilet paper and using splashes of sea water to keep her body odor at bay while pleading to God to get some proper bath (her pleas were at last heard), or listening to it with an audience of mature woman snickering or cruelly laughing at the twos flushing state.

Plus points of the long lecture, which spread around the ship faster than wildfire, having gotten to the captain herself that left her also try to bite off her chuckles, were her freshly washed underwear, the given clothes being relatively clean (the waiting in the cabin was agonizing enough for Ann and Erika to want to forget it) and new information on what to do in case of her or Erika's period showing up. Who knew that pads or tampons were scarce material on the sea just before restocking, as such was the case here, and a good alternative proved to be bandages or even clean cut-off sleeves.

Of course having enough of being ashamed and left more embarrassed, Ann put on a saccharine smile and almost theatrically bowed down to express her gratitude for the concern and treatment as her whereabouts left her and also Erika lacking in the department of proper hygiene, altogether with the fact that Ann, being from an inland town situated far away from the sea, didn't have much knowledge of the basics on the sea.

She even clasped her hands on the nurse's own and thanked her for the very informative lesson and asked whether she could come and ask her more if the need arouse.

Needless to say the room was left speechless in the face of the radiant grin of Ann.

And to do more damage, she swiftly added: "I think that more people should know about the importance of hygiene. Especially refreshing such basics can help even the most experienced people as many may tend to forget it in favor of staying above the sea water or doing equally exhausting time-consuming tasks which might lead to such neglect."

The ignited fire in the blonde's blue eyes made the other women in the cabin want to scream murder and flee the scene at the same time.

"Just some nicely put words, proper manner and the situation handles itself," she thought feeling triumphant for the first time since her so-called 'rescue' of Erika.

Having put up a shaky end to the quickly spread rumors thanks to the newly gained ally in form of the stern and terror-inspiring rotund nurse Leila who had such a tight reign that absolutely everyone, even the head doctor couldn't help but cower thus dampening the exciting information ( it didn't help that the moment someone made fun of it, Leila latched into a new lecture of hygiene and diseases, making the poor soul cry to the sky for forgiveness), they got to eat another scarce, as they were running low on their supplies, breakfast consisting of a glass of water, a few loafs of bread, and a small helping of scrambled eggs. Yet in their minds they were on could nine with such food. The nuts and fruits or whatever else Erika had to put up either made the bland food extremely tasty and blissful to their hungered stomachs.

Of course as their obviously displayed thank you the two ended up trying to help out with the work on the ship. To the shame of the older, the younger was more proficient with the chores earning quite a lot praise for her hard work. A few crewmen who looked like in heir 20es tried to unashamedly tease Ann, a way to make up for the lectures given by the nurse, with a few comments about her overall slow pace, clumsy movement with obvious chores like cleaning the deck and the lack of strength in comparison to most of the girls her age or whatever else they could come up with.

For her it were some less than friendly comments that could be brushed off as some teenage gossip if not for the hint of truth in them which was kind of grating on her nerves.

The only thing she could do was somehow uphold her dignity and try to lessen the killing intent of her companion who was glaring daggers at the man who dared to make fun of her rescuer.

"Really?" Anna said trying to come off with a condescending tone. "You know, I may be making you uncomfortable seeing your the lack of interaction with girls my age but you needn't be shy. I don't bite nor am I out to kill you. No need to worry. I'm as much of a person as you are." To that she grinned at them in an as much as she could demure and innocent way.

At the reddening faces she quickly added fuel to the fire. A glint of mischief in her eye.

"Oh, and by the way if you are really that much interested in my share of work as to vividly talk about then you don't have to lurk around me. Simply asking: 'Could we do the cleaning for you?' would suffice. I'm not going to take offence at that."

With that she turned around and continued cleaning the deck.

"Hopefully I didn't get too arrogant. Wouldn't do good to look like a wannabe literate," she thought anxiously.

Unbeknownst to her, her little companion came up to them with a smug expression. The ones that were harassing Ann quickly shut up.

At least Ann didn't have to deal with another rude remarks for the rest of the day, with Erika being obviously giddy on her feet from Ann's sharp tongue.

This didn't miss the ears of the captain who also got a little smug. The same night at the late dinner when the woman made her way to the table the moment she came close to the boyish youngsters she remarked aloud:

"Why so down? I thought that you were up a little intellectually not to get down by some clumsy dorkish girl, right?"

The hall roared with laughter much to the shame of the guys and surprisingly the girl who also was a little bit red from the sudden praise.

Truthfully Anna was more than happy to get with Erika to her bed, too much emotionally drained to even consider further interaction.


	6. Chapter 6

The left over jolly atmosphere carried over the night. Yet that didn't bode for a relatively peaceful tomorrow.

The morning of their 2nd day on the ship presented no many changes, though. It was a bit comforting to have a normal schedule: wake up to the noises of the bustling women, wash the face, get breakfast, ask how to help, then proceed to carry some lighter cargo to the storages, help with some counting, and lastly end up cleaning the deck. The captain herself said that it was easy and tame stuff as not to aggravate her leg wounds (which were properly dressed by the nurse in the evening and had the needed protection of the worn-out boot-like shoes for which she still cried out of happiness) but Ann still managed to get quickly exhausted before 12 o'clock.

Of course such idyll had to be punished with bad luck. In the near future Ann would wholeheartedly agree with that.

The light swing of the waves and hushes of the sea were quickly dismissed as the crack of a cannonball resounded.

Shortly followed with a shout: "PIRATES!"

In a matter of a few minutes most of the crew was assembled on the deck, their work having been abandoned due to the imminent danger.

From the railings at the back of the ship where Erika and Anna had been resting for a while, they took notice of the looming outlines of a pirate ship on their right side. There wasn't much distance left between them. It didn't help that the pirate ship seemed to have picked up on speed, chasing after the merchant vessel.

The first to raise a command towards them was the captain seeing as she was right next to them having been overlooking the work of the cleaning group.

"Anna, Erika. You go down below deck. Jet, Rue, Meg, you guys are to shield them and the other incapable to fight, mainly the elder ones and the ones with cracked bones, as they go down to the storage. You know which one. You are to keep the intruders from going there. The others with weapons get ready!"

With that the Helen quickly ran forwards to hiss out another shout to the ones who didn't hear her.

Everyone present rose with tension enveloping them, clearly expectant of the oncoming orders. The smaller group, that gathered near the main mast, was escorted to the kitchen area and then a backdoor that led below deck.

Ann could hear some other shouts like "Group A protect the shipment!" or "Group B to the cannons!" and so on.

Somehow it reminded her of the first days in this new universe. She scooped Erika closer to her and firmly held her hand on her shoulder as they were guided to the more secluded section.

"This is the empty storage room. On the other side of the wall is the real cargo. No need to worry, we can hold ourselves if anything. We have a tough crew," said Meg with a reassuring smile. He was tall and bulky with a very deep brown carnation and dreads but overall very friendly. Ann and Erika answered with a smile. They sat down in the middle, a few men who seemed to be either very old or with broken limbs surrounding them and a couple of women who they presumed to be kitchen helpers or the cooks. Obviously the nurses and the doctor were needed at the sick bay in case for instant help.

They sat still for a while with the ongoing ruckus of battle shouts and cannonballs in the background. Almost instinctively Ann grasped the shoulder of Erika and pulled her to herself, the younger almost resting on her lap. To surpass her inner shudders of what was going on Ann focused herself on small talk with the others. She got to know that most of them had some battle experience, not surprising as it was a merchant ship in the New World so there needed to be tough people to protect the cargo, explained a girl who was actually a cook.

"Sadly there weren't anyone to cook with actual battle experience. Most are previous marines or some tougher fisherman. Rarely pirates. We," she gestured to the batch of girls who sat in a circle. "were the only cooks that actually wanted the job and got it as there weren't many who wanted to or could cook for that matter. Not many want to be on a merchant ship. Though the pay is actually good. Sometimes there are even high bonuses, especially if it's a cargo from a rich person or a noble. Though it is pretty dangerous if one doesn't know the waters or safe routes to travel. Merchants are normally accompanied by a marine ship. But these waters are fairly new to them and most islands, as you may know, are under the pirates rule. Luckily most of them are under Whitebeards reign. He is the most peaceful one who protects his islands and allies. That's why it's OK to travel here. The other pirates are mostly afraid to attack," explained the blonde cook to the two who were intently listening.

Another woman with short brown wavy hair added brightly: "The strongest man in the world." But was interrupted this time by an old-looking man with a broken leg.

"But there are still wannabe pirates who try to attack him or worse for us: his territories. They might be nothing to him but to us they are usually pretty strong. Sometimes we lose some cargo."

"Yea, and the next day most are beat up," added with a grin a black-haired man with a sprained ankle. Ann grasped tighter the younger shoulders and most likely, she thought at least, must have paled as Erika turned to her with a cornered look. The others caught up with that but before they uttered a reassuring word, both of them were slapped on the head by the blonde cook.

"Both of you. Stop that scaring. Can't you see that she is absolutely terrified. Really, catch on with the mood, " she scolded which earned her a muttered "Sorry, Lin." And then turned around and uttered a sorry to the two.

She turned around to them both. "Sorry about these two. It seems like a novel idea that there are sensitive people who don't like battles and prefer to be away from all that. Or simply don't want to engage in dangerous situations. Unlike some people." She glanced at the group of young injured men who smiled sheepishly. Then she turned to Ann and smiled. "But you don't need to worry. Here it's relatively safe..."

And a crash interrupted her followed by vibrant shouts.

"Get to the railing!" "They are tough!" "Hurry up with the guns!"

Ann made a visible 'You-don't-say' face with a 'Are-you-kidding-me' added to it as the cook nervously chuckled.

"Well, at least no one flew through the wall, hehe." The strained voice didn't convince her in the slightest.

Ann sighed and refocused her anxiety-stricken thoughts to something else.

"Where do you come from? I mean, the island and such …"

Seeing the effort to change the topic the cook began rumbling about how she came from a village near a river transport trail in the mountains.

"Well, it's not that bad," Ann thought.

Another crash resounded.

Her eye twitched.

"Yea, it's definitely going to get worse."

* * *

One new feature about the ship, which Ann learnt from her stay in the storage, was that the thin walls and the narrow corridors were a perfect way of transferring sound.

Amongst the ongoing chaos with people shooting, fighting, protecting the goods and rushing to the infirmary with the bleeding ones, she could easily pick out someone's yelp.

"Wait. Is that a Whitebeard ship coming there?"

"Yea, I think it's one of them!" shouted back another person.

"Do you see the size? It's the Moby Dick!"

"No way could it be them. I think it's the Moby 2 or 3," added another one.

A moment later the massive shadow came near and revealed a big 3 on the main sail or so she thought relaying on the shouts rather than the mid-sized round wooden frame, window as the pirates were pretty much either farer away or at a different angle.

"See. I told you it's not the main Moby Dick."

The small interruption seemed not to change the ongoing chaos as both sides fought and shot causing more and more wounded. Luckily more on the pirates' side.

At some point one of the men shouted through the noise: "Cap, are they gonna help us!?"

There was a small pause as the older woman pushed with her sword her attacker into the sea.

With a huff and slight annoyance she answered equally loud:

"We shall see!"

And spew out another chain of commands to ward off the attackers.

* * *

In roughly 15 minutes the big ship came nearer with a rather tall and bulky man at the front.

In the meantime as Anna and Erika were huddled in a relatively safe corner in the storage, both of them had time to inspect thanks to the only window the rather intimidating ship with their equally scary residents that considering the barks of commands above might be their saviors.

The next few minutes were spent moving back and forth and from side to side at high speed velocities.

The ship moved from left to right, the people on the deck nearly crashing into the cold sea water. (To Ann's relief the storage was as safe as before apart from the sudden sways.)

The attackers' ship while being rather big to the merchants couldn't hold a candle to the combined cannon balls of the merchant's and the helping pirates.

Within few seconds the opponent's ship with its residents plummeted into the sea. The overflowing waves caused by the fight mercilessly taking it down to the bottom of the ocean.

Luckily the impact and the residue pirates who got onto the merchant ship's deck didn't concern the girls as almost immediately the enemies were fought off with only the vicious hisses of metal echoing through the corridors.

Ann, trying to failingly lessen the stress from the noises, spent her time closely looking around and securing a hard grip on the smaller girl's shoulder. Her eyes wandered from one corner to the other till she stopped at the same small window which made it possible to even notice the giant pirate vessel though it was only a part of it.

Clashes, shooting, and angry shouts filled Anna's head. It certainly didn't help her overheated nerves as she shifted her body along with the waves of the sea. The only lasting effect seemed to have her rather crude breathing techniques which she used during moments of heightened levels of stress and fear. She had more than enough shares of such 'moments'. More than she bargained for. The unnaturally familiar feeling of anxiety hit her like the proverbial ton of bricks.

"Calm down, calm down, calm down." The mantra muttered at high speed making it sound like a chain of curses.

Maybe it was a gut feeling or sheer obviousness of her nausea which told her if anything were to abruptly stop then her next course of action would end with her head deeply hidden in the soothingly cool toilet bowl. Or the her head peeking out from the damn window.

For now she settled into an awkward half-crouch, Erika being in a sitting position in front of her with a firmly planted right hand on Erika's right shoulder.

Through the on-going battle above their heads, her mind having gotten used to the constant disarray of thoughts, curses, and whatever else, the distressed older teen didn't notice a cool hand slip onto her face.

"Miss?" The sudden sound of concern and a deeply layered fear, brought her back to the current situation of looking at the shining emerald eyes that held a touch of upset.

Ann violently shook her head as to let go of Erika's hand and her last worries in her mind. The reaction thankfully didn't deter the younger much yet made up for new confusion.

"Nah. It's better now. I'm just not used to all…"

Her chapped lips a stiff imitation of a smile wasn't enough to fool the redhead. Ann's eyes wandered yet again through the room, visibly and quite desperately trying to look for a good name or word for the chaos.

Her eyes jumped from the few elder whose worried expression held an inexplicable calm, to some unfortunate injured whose legs, arms or even ribs were thoroughly bandaged which seemed to ooze some kind of liveliness in their auras unlike Anna's misery, to the rest, the few muscled ones or the ones with sharp objects as their weapons of choice while serious or in a light-hearted mood ready to jump in case things took a wrong turn, and the newbies whose inexperience or hot-headedness or both made their posture straighter in an almost comical way with determination and excitement dripping from their features. Lastly her eyes came back to the impressive green, very expectant of an answer to which she simply added: "That."

And hastily hugged the teen from behind, her stiff stance relaxing from the building tension. The change didn't go unnoticed by the younger whose own feelings seemed to emulate Ann's.

Additionally her tight grip on Erika's shoulder loosed a bit, a subtle sign that it was Ok. That Anna was Ok. By far not great. But alright. Just ok.

In all her years the almost 19-year old would never have done such an embarrassing act of affection in front of anyone, at home, with very close friends, sure yet not in front of the recently acquainted people who looked highly amused if not outright chuckling at the display.  
Yet Ann chose to ignore the rising feel of awkwardness in favor of savoring the sweet moment of having an alive human being at her side, providing her with soothing warmth to her overheated nerves.

"Who cares if the guys have nerves made from steel. Who cares that they don't get panic attacks at the guns, or battle. Cut me some slack, I'm just a 18-year old girl with sensitive feelings."

Her words too slurred to make out their meaning though it didn't matter as long as Ann got her anxiety relatively at bay and Erika wasn't going to take an example in her and get anxious, too.

Her grandiose thoughts of panic attacks, keeping her guts at bay came to an abrupt halt as a round of shoots echoed.

This time everyone present turned to the window from where the most intense shouts and clashes could be heard. It looked like the high of the battle faded away leaving angry grunts of protest in the background.

As on cue the door to the storage opened, with a little too much impact.

"You can get out! The attackers went down. We won!" exclaimed a rough-looking crewmate in a gleeful manner.

Without further instructions the people scrambled to the exit, some faster as to help out with the aftermath, some slower to help out the ones lagging behind.

"Let's go," she commanded to Erika in a half-smile to which the younger nodded.

Despite cramping legs from the tension and sitting they managed to get the exit.

Yet an ominous feeling enveloped Anna's mind which she couldn't quite shake off.

Like the calm before the storm.

A horrendous and sadistic touch twisting her guts.

A bit of bile tasted in her mouth and Ann tried her best to ignore the sense of foreboding. As a distraction or in a yet again overflowing need of comfort, for her or Erika, she wasn't sure, she took the girl's hand in her own. Out of the corner of her eye she could see a genuine and grateful smile forming on the redhead's face.

"Seems like we both need the comfort," she thought. Her face having twisted into a scowl rather than a smile due to the oncoming nausea.

Unconsciously the grip tightened from both their hands as the two stepped onto the deck.


	7. Chapter 7

A disaster, a natural or unnatural chaos, utmost tragedy of nature with people rushing in and out in order to clean the battlefield.

To put it simply the deck reminded her more of a shipwreck after a murderous tornado with only the steady albeit also having suffered from the attack masts being the standing proof of the victory. The sole remainder of the previous pirates were the specks of blood that left a bitter aftertaste in the atmosphere.

The merchant captain, in all her glory at the age of 55, her dark blue outfit covered with blood from her victims, stood proudly with a stern face at the other end of the deck, a white sling securely wrapped around her left arm. Truly impressive for an old lady like her to stand ground with such fierce attackers, from what Ann had gathered through the floating rumors.

The two girls having come from the left side from the mess hall, pretty much away from the serious conversation between the captain and first-mate, a suntanned guy mid-30s with a saber attacked to his hip, whom they didn't get to know better apart from some basic introductions during their 2-days stay, and two other unknown people.

For now Ann managed to stagger to the railing, being exhausted to stand from probably motion sickness, Erika firmly putting her hand from the grip on her back. Their position was rather close to the giant ship which some parts she saw through the window during the attack yet seeing no danger apart from the curious glance and loud commands to get things in order, she didn't care.

That was when the first information came circulating to the two. Out of a nasty habit Ann strained her ears to the ongoing conversations of the people rushing between them.

"Have you heard-"

"Yea, the Whitebeard pirates-"

"Two commanders helped us."

"Truly a miracle. Now they are discussing something."

"I overheard that they are going to escort us to the next island."

"Probably a mission or something. A lookout or scouting."

"Idiot, didn't you know WB himself recently proclaimed Busket island and the ones around as his territory."

"Maybe that's why they're gonna get us back."

"Or not. They can just-"

"Hey, look the commanders are on our ship."

"No shit, genius-"

With that Ann ceased her little eavesdropping to get a better look at the 'commanders'

"Judging by the titles, the WB pirates must be well-organized. Mighty, powerful and probably resourceful with the islands Whitebeard proclaimed," she analyzed from the rumors and what she saw. Her brain would have to come up with a better 'relaxing' exercise than listening in on other people's talks.

She scanned the people and ship despite its mightiness in form and size. The flurry of the crews, busy getting back their cargo, commands to get back to work, repairing the damages, cleaning the blooded parts and carrying various things or escorting the heavily injured to the infirmary, to which Ann heaved a relief to hear no one was killed and the few ones lazing around for a small pause making small chats between the merchants and pirates.

"So they mean no harm. Good," she noted mentally before adding with a sign. "Better help out." Not that she was any less green in her face or in top form but it would suffice to do smaller things. It was wiser to do something than constantly worrying about bigger unnatural objects, interactions or imagining people like the very blue-skinned man-like creature talking to the captain far in the front of her whilst being on the left side as them.

"No, it's more like a creature-like man," she thought absent-mindedly.

Ann furrowed. Something didn't sit right.

She concentrated on the two unknown people on the other side of the ship, near where the planks connected the two ships which was the main reason as to why she had to put an effort to see through the crowding crewmates hurrying with some wooden boxes, from the WB ship to the direction of the mess hall. She shook her head and looked again, relieved that her view was partially not covered by some other guys.

Something really wasn't right with the seemingly important picture of a conversation.

One of the probably commanders was a tall, at least 2 or 3 meters, bulky man with wide shoulders whereas the other…

"Are these gills?" She tried to get a better look at the people, taking a few steps forward and deeply squinting her eyes. In her numb state she didn't realize the stretching worry on the redhead features or the tightness of a grip on left shoulder or how the mumbled voices of distress of "Miss, are you alright?", "Please, sit down." , "Don't go that way."

"Can you hear me?" At the question a hand waved in front of her face. Yet the motion was discarded for the grating on her nerves thought of these peculiar people.

The all-too familiar feeling of anxiety seemed to have rooted itself into her very core and deep into her every bone.

Coupled with the previous nausea and panic coming from the battle which her modern 21st century mind couldn't comprehend it didn't make for a nice mixture.

Then life and time stopped. At least for Ann.

Her gaze shifted to the man with black short hair.

A long serious face with black stripe-like patterns for a beard and hairstyle, the blank expression void of emotion, at least it looked like that from her position at the railings nearby the far end of the ship yet close enough to get a better look, very visible bulking muscles partially covered by the heavy dirty green and black armour with the red points of shoulder pads and the glint of silver or gold belt and black combat-like boots.

An obvious tension resided in his aura executing a kind of menacing pressure. Or her mind was in a sadistic mood to add more to her rising blood pressure.

That much she could get from her position only affected by the oncoming bouts of shivers and nausea slowly making its way to her.

The picture despite its impossibility due to the shock of his height than his rather unsightly/frightening appearance reminded her of some old pictures of Aztecs or Terakota soldiers.

She tried to shook off the growing apprehension which gnawed her consciousness, so she quickly settled her gaze onto the next person.

That wasn't the best course of action. Albeit more comforting than the previous giant.

Hump-backed with a protruding shark fin, the jaw set to the front with teeth sticking out from the mouth, the very obvious gills on his neck on which a visible black 8 was tattooed, spiky black hair and an equally disinterested yet more lively from the conversation expression. The attire was better to take in as it consisted of a simple white-blue shirt with a red something, from what she could see between the people and some pants though that she couldn't quite see as his shortness made it more difficult to discern his appearance.

But he seemed to have a less pressuring aura around him or it was due to his smaller hefty shape. Though the crossed arms, straight posture and the business-like manner certainly did make up for the lack of height.

It caused yet another internal problem.

She didn't know whether to be glad of her good eye-sight and the short experiences which during her long stay here sharpened her mind regarding looking at details or she should curse her mind for feeding her eyes some strange visions.

She closed her eyes, air pumped to her lungs as she took a breath. Her favourite motion as of recent time.

When she opened them again, the same sight greeted her.

A giant in terms of probably everything and a fish-like man.

Now she didn't know if all her experiences weren't but a simple nightmare.

It just couldn't be possible.

Well, that was also the very first thought when she arrived in this world.

As if these two figures looming there and holding a normal, but serious conversation were a trigger for her mind.

So trivial to all the people around yet so important for her.

It was as though their appearance cracked a damm inside her releasing the pent-up water of her memories since the moment she arrived here. It all came crushing down without a halt.

The first island, the walking on the sand in search of a way to go home, the hunger pangs of going on for the first week without a proper meal, the storm and her bloodied feets, the victory of seeing a town with people after Ann's long isolation, the bailing out and first encounter with Erika, running away and setting sail, the sudden rescue, the nice words and proper help, the ensuing battle and the aftermarth of all the bottled-up feelings of denial which only now realized she had these for the whole time.

Realization dawned on her for the first time, not counting the previous currents of panic and a small yet alive hope of maybe getting back home.

Now that hope simply shattered to pieces. Or vanished without any traces left behind.

Everything came rushing up to her like lava and ice. From something such simple as a giant and a merman in her mind.

Scorching hot to steal her breath yet sending chilling shivers down her spine at the same time.

It didn't make sense at all.

For all that she vowed to keep her cool and try to make the best of the situation. Why would she get another panic attack shortly after the one before?!

Why?

 _Why?!_

She simply didn't know. Didn't know much about this world or the people or the laws of nature. Only that certain rules simply didn't apply to the Earth where she had lived.

Prime example: the people before her very eyes. They talked, breathed and she didn't have to touch them to be sure that they were living beings.

She wasn't sure what her feelings were apart form the untangled mess or whether her decisions and actions were right or wrong.

But now...

She at least was sure, no, absolutely certain of one unwrapped and solved mystery which she hadn't been aware of till this moment.

"It's all real."

Her words mumbled at first to which the forgotten Erika leaned towards her with a pale shade, visibly insecure of what had transpired in her savior's mind to get such a strong response.

In a stupor Ann, her eyes glazed over, repeated as on automat in a louder voice.

"It's all real!"

The reaction surprised Erika as she took a few steps backwards, only stopping at the railing. Her eyebrows shot up, her palms brought up just in case to help or more in an attempt, not knowing what to do.

Additionally Ann's voice gathered some more curious glaces than she would have like if her sanity didn't take such a violent turn.

And with last conviction barely holding back her emotions, with a slight excitement that strangely mixed with the terrifying crack in her voice, she regained her grasp on her new-found reality.

Her face turning a rather nice shade of palness.

"IT'S ALL REAL!"

And like that she leaned over and puked onto the already filthy deck having not enough strength to haul her sorry head over the railing.


	8. Chapter 8

Befuddlement and a strong case of WTF swirled in Anna's hazy mind which tried to fight off the previous fog of utter emotinal chaos leaving her rather drained and fresh to the raw fear for her new-found awarness of her 'delicate' situation.

Ann tried to dispel the residual nausea with the the freshly mental wounds and insintent whispers in her thoughts that indeed, this was real, the people were real, and she was real, too.

That the world which she knew very little about, had no idea how it even could functionate or what other kind of screwed up people, creatures were lurking around the corner; that everything was indeed real.

One thing for sure, it definitely wasn't her world. Or any she knew of or heard of at least.

Thrown into a place that didn't match any of the various discriptions from novels, books, ideas or whatever else and acknowledging it in front of that many people didn't belong to her most intelligent actions, either.

It was the crushing and down-right scary realization that momentarily froze off her veins.

It was painful to see, hear and feel with new awareness that everything was indeed real, and to top it off her clogged brain managed to assemble her nerves and present a painstakingly clear 3D picture of what was in front of her.

It just hurt.

Everything ached in a way of being subjected to the whole overstimulation.

It certainly didn't help matters that her previous shouts of rising panic verging on a more profound mental breakdown consequently caught the attention of everyone within talking, walking or hearing radius. Even unfortunately gaining the extra pair of eyes of the helping pirates.

Meaning she just made herself a fool or madwoman in front of everyone.

"Nice, very nice," she thought busying herself with the agonizing wrenches to get rid of the awful rests of vomit lingering in her throat and wiping away the tears and snot off her face, thankfully taking a rag from the obviously shaking Erika, though she did a tough job of closing off her own feelings, leaving only her impressive green eyes full of concern as a door to her thoughts.

For now her slow curbs in her mind gradually picked up the pace yet unhurriedly still adjusting to her drowsy state.

Anna made a self-note to remember to get some pills for motion sickness. And some medicine to 'getting-sick-from-realizing-I-am-in-a-new-universe'. Yes, it sounded like a good idea.

After making sure her digested meals weren't furtherly marking the floor with colourful and sickening patters, her shudders minimalized with Erika's careful circular strokes on her back, she reclined into a more comfortable sitting position, having dragged herself from the puke to the railing.

If not for her clearing her mind of yet another wave of haziness, the sick woman would have made sure to jump head-first, consequences be damned, into the sea, in order to get away from the intense stares, the sheer concern which made someone dash to get her some water, the dumbfounded looks seeing for maybe the first time someone getting motion sickness( not counting the feels from the battle) or the curious glances from the pirates.

For now she was busy getting to know her mixed feelings of dizziness and a clearing mind which showed every move in slow motion.

It was good that Anna didn't believe in having much luck to begin with because the next course of action would make her scream murder at whoever put her into this sad joke of reality/universe/whatever else if not for the sheer quickness of movements where suddenly she was yanked by her front hoodie up, her gaze meeting the angry, dare she say, fish-like sea eyes of a man.

Or a creature reminding a man while being a fish.

"Nah, too much thinking," she thought being surprisingly unresponsive to the rude treatment.

It seemed that her state not only caught up with the universe but also the roughly 2 weeks she had been here finally letting fatigue overcome her from her motion sickness to her mental breakdown.

In her daydreaming state she wondered how her mind and body could go on feeling many kinds of emotions flickering from one to another within a split second without a single regard to her mental health. It was like her entire being harboured a current of unresolved emotional distress. At least she her she got a poetic and very creative way of venting about her problems. Her English teacher would be very proud of her. Not that it was much of use for now.

That was how she ended in a rather strange behaviour of passive dullness. Or in a catatonic state of I-don't-give-a-fuck-anymore-whatsoever-screw-everything.

This particularity caught the dark-blue-skinned person by surprise which slowly turned into more anger.

"Oi, are you listening? You just insulted our brother and commander, woman! And now you even have the nerve to ignore me! YOU BITCH-!" he shouted enough for the people around to take a few steps back.

Anna still trying to wrap her head around the situation noticed how the noise didn't seem to have reached the captain who was currently on the other end of the ship as the shouts were rather, well, high-pitched.

Instead her eyes registered or more actually acknowledged enough to give a damn the various onlookers, very much engrossed in the unfolding act.

Especially after she unconsciously made a rude remark to the commandore of the pirate ship who just helped them out. Even more so if they belonged to the crew of the strongest man ever.

The only thing keeping her together was Ann's tiredness of the whole absudity.

Not even allowed to properly get to the self-pitying and cursing out to the world. Or universe.

Her attidute, passive eyes with a bit of weariness, slouched posture, presented quite a contrast to the stiffened people around, merchants and the few pirates alike.

The silence wore on and an uncomfortable layer of horror, exasperation and slight surprise seemed to have enveloped everyone.

Well, everyone expect the lean male who reminded her of a deft mackrel although with broad shoulders, impressive muscles and a pretty pissed off expression that planted itself in the square jaw, long nose and the yellow eyes that only had very small points as irises.

Ann tried to get a more concerned look as it was undoubtedly a frightening situation, though she felt the shivers down her spine, an unconditioned reaction by now, she just wanted to go get some medicine for her tender stomach and painkillers from the self-induced breakdown for her head.

It was too much emotional baggage for one day to carry.

It seemed that the male got all the more angry as time went on that he shouted catching Ann from her stupor.

"Now what are you gonna do, wrench!?"

His voice changed to a audacious sneer. "Feeling too arrogant to consider an apology?! A lady such as yourself feeling too proud and too pure to at least bow in shame. Tell ya' what. Not even a sorry will help you!"

The wrath made her heart pound at a worriying pace, not used to the high decibeles.

Her run-away brain graciously provided her with a 'nice piece of advice'.

'Should have fainted instead of puking out my guts.'

Then an idea dropped out of simply nowhere.

"I insulted his brother, didn't apologise, and presumely he hates my guts. Nice. Not helpful at all with me being stir-fried from everything. Saying sorry will make him more angry. Then again there is nothing else left," she thought, a more sober and determined look on her pale face.

The male realised it and to hinder her from running away he tightened his grip on her hoodie.

It wasn't the most comfortable position with her legs only barely touching the floor.

She took a breath and then spoke aloud, her cracking voice brimming with spiked confidence leaving no room for any doubt. Her words were like bullets coming out from her mouth at high velocity.

"Excuse me, sir. As you see I'm in a not so good dispition right now, my body not used to the sudden changes of the sea, making me suffer from a rather nasty slash of motion sickness thus obstructing me from sensible judgement. And considering the lingering effects of stress accumulating in my mind from all the battle shouts and so other it unfortunately caused the aforementioned insult towards your brother, the commander. I know that it is not even considered as a legitimate excuse for the poor behaviour as you yourself have said it before yet to my defense I'm only a guest on the ship not too used to sudden attacks or gun shots and the like, having led a sheltered lifestyle which made my mental health suffer even more.

You have every right not to belive my words as they come off as a blatant lie but at least let me tell you that I certainly didn't mean to spew out such words. My simple excuse being not by my all senses from the sudden motion sickness and the stress though even I would be angered by such a derogatory lie.

I can understand your hesitation and dare I say anger as this may not be an appropriate way of showing remorse, but I beg you for understanding that the scathing slip of tounge wasn't my intention at all. If anything I can give you evidence of my momentairly lack of comprehansion in form of my dear friend here who helped me lessen the effects of my sickness.

Though I think that actions speak more than my own words. I'm ready to face any consequences stemming from my own ignorance.

If you would like, we can go to the commander and I can, no, I will show my utmost regret for the disrespectful manner I presented to the ones who kindly helped us during the attack. That saying..."

She took advantage from the suddenly loosened death-grip, and got to her feet only to bow down in a 90 degree angle.

"For any rude words, insult spoken through my lack of consideration I'm terribly sorry."

She managed to get some real regret for her insult across altogether with unwavering resolve to make up for her faults.

Although she honestly wasn't sure what she did wrong. But when a tough guy from a pirate crew told you that you were wrong then you simply nod to that and apologize.

Not even once did Ann look around at the gaping people, including the flabbergasted male who in a show of surpise, let her go, his arms limply hanging by his sides.

She was too busy trying to determine whether she used the right wordings, grammar, proper expressions, and scolding her own attidute for losing eye-contact and such other details regarding ettiquete.

She felt the need to hug the living day-lights of her mother for her feiry temper and obsession about the world's various manners but the need vanished at the thought how much she improvised her apology with mixing in the British, Japanese, maybe American and who knows what other culture. Her mother certainly wouldn't appreciate that though considering the circumstances she might forgive her daughter this time.

It was kind of a pity that she didn't witness the absolute plate-shaped eyes that were on the verge of bulging out of the people's sockets.

It may or may not have reassured her.

* * *

Slowly, like, really, really, slowly, Anna rose from her bow to get a proper look at the outcome.

What she saw added more confustion than dispel it:

A male, which she dubbed a fish-like man, eyes wide open and a dumbfonded look. Then his, she assumed, crewmates, some like him, partially fish, some normal humans. And at last the merchants. Truthully at this point no one looked that much different from the other in their shell-shocked state. Well, apart from one person, namely Erika, who was getting accustomed to the quirks and behavior of her saviour, leaving her only with a semi-surprised and partially immobilised from the surrounding tension.

Anna raised an eyebrow at that and in order not to jeoperdize her chances for forgiveness (or not getting her body thrashed into the sea) she put on a fairly innocent front.

"Well, if you would like we could go and I can apologise to the commander right now."

As on cue, the male in front of her seemed to rouse from his own stupor.

"Yea, I think, that is not much needed." He himself wasn't sure what to say.

"Does that mean that my apology was accepted? If not, then I really can go and directly apologize. Better now than later or a bigger misunderstanding will appear."

Ann squashed any left-over doubt and stared at him with utmost concentration, her brown eyes widening while trying to convey her determination.

She may not have believed that this kind of persuasion tactic could work on a rougish pirate, but at the moment there was only so much left from her tactical disposal.

She was seriously considering to up her skills at acting, lying, persuading whilst having absolute no idea what was actually happening.

"Yeeeaa, I think that is enough," the guy seemed to have the same issues about the situation.

"Really, it shouldn't be much of a problem to go to the Commander and apologize, that is of course when he is not busy." She straighened her posture to a painful degree that her spine was going to revolt later on.

"No,no,no,no,no… I think that is enough." He shook his head and put up his hands as to prove a point.

"Are you sure?" Anna could have sworn that her voice broke at the end. Well, it truthfully did crack.

"Yea. It wasn't that much, really." He stared at her lond and uncertain, his eyes skirting above her head as if he was looking out for something.

And just like that he took a few steps back, waved rather sheepishly and awkwardly vanished to his friends side.

"Well, if that is not weird then I don't know what is anymore." Ann was left staring at his retreating form, eyes wide and stupified, feeling almost the same awkwardness as him.

Thus the tense aura surrounding them eased and the people around gathered their wits, also looking out-of-mind from the situation. Yet some of them seemed to have realised that the show was over and made their way to their own work (more likely getting shouted at by some other comrade for lazing around instead of working). And like that the magic flushed out with the crowd leaving the two at the railings.

Another surprise was met when Anna turned her head to see the mortified and equally confused green eyes of Erika who seeing the sudden slouch of her quickly put a hand on Ann's left shoulder.

"Thank you," the tired woman breathed out in relief. The pressure almost completely gone and also having sucked out her energy.

In a careful manner Erika dragged her to the side, which ended with Ann leaning on a wall, near the entrance to the main storage, whilst Erika crouched in fornt of her.

"Now, I actually don't want to know, but it seemed that it was rather serious, so could you give me some detail on what just happened, I mean before the whole debacle, as you know I was feeling pretty dizzy and who it was or why he was sure I insulted someone?" As much as she didn't want to bother seeing the problem solved itself, but knowing the whole reason for the rude behaviour wouldn't hurt her. Well, much.

"Huh?" The question frazzeled the redhead.

Ann let out a deep sigh. "If you don't know, then-"

That caused a reaction. Erika stumbling for words, a blush covering her face.

"I-, No, I know, but—Eeeh"

That spured on Ann's sadistic side. She laughed out pretty loudly not in the slightest guilty. It was a freeing action after so much stress.

Unfotunately that couldn't be said about the redhead whose face not for the first time almost matched her hair.

"No,no. I didn't mean it like that. It's just... No, it's really funny. Now don't give me that look. It's my fault. I know that you know. You were by my side when all that happened. I don't even know why but the whole thing is so funny and I'm stupid for laughing," she managed to spew out in-between her chuckles. "I mean that it's ok."

To her own surprise Erika seemed or more like tried to look very affronted by her undignified action going as far as to wrinkle her forehead, but it ended up with Ann laughing even more.

"Seriously that kid can even pull out a cute pout while being angry."

It took some more time to get back some strength and a few people calling out to check whether Anna was ok or bringing some medicine for sickness and glass of water by a lond black-haired woman and some young blond lad.

After a few more moments the concerned looks turned relaxed and some older men even complained about the two having too much time on their hands and if so then they can as easily get to work. Both of the girls vehemently denied any kind of leisure and Anna added that she still had problems walking with her wounds.

At least the guys rolled their eyes before going off. Their badly concealed comment regarding too lazy gals and todays youth being irresponsible managed to elicit a rough chuckle from Erika.

"You know, you really have a cute pout," added Ann absent-mindedly.

And that was how she unconsciously prompted Erika to revert to her previous state.

It was not the first time that Ann cursed her stupidity with words.

After finally calming down, her from all the laughing and the younger girl having achieved to reign in her own stutters, Erika managed to explain what transpired from the moment she had her dizziness and how the roughish brute rudely grabbed her (Ann noted the obvious signs of worship, which she didn't know how to respond to the flames in the blazing green eyes) while also as tactful as possible relaying Ann's breakdown, to which the woman couldn't help but cringe at her own behaviour, and the probable reason for the man-handling.

All in all Anna had a feeling that the rumors would undoubtedly have reached the captain's ears the moment everything went downhill. The captain had more important work on her hands than looking over a squabble that resolved itself.

Of course her sense of doom didn't disappont her though for now her consciousness remained in bissful obliviousness.

Yet a snippet of peace reached her and Erika as they both sat by the entrance to the storage, people loading cargo to trasport it, the injured wailing or huffing in pain as they were escorted to the infimary and the shouts of numerous orders or the like surrounding them.

"Hey, Erika."

The girl turned to her and the woman could swear she saw question marks flowing beside her head. She shook her own head to banish such absurdity, her face screwing up into a rueful smile.

"Think the old lady is going to laugh at us or strangle us for that show."

The horrified look on Erika's face didn't provide her with a definitive answer.


	9. Chapter 9

The answer was: both.

Somehow after getting roped into more chores for the evening, though Anna appreciated the change of scenery willing to get some work done instead of allowing her negative thoughts to overwhelm her again (the break with Erika served them well, too), the two of them were intercepted by the captain at the back of the mess hall during their late dinner.

Of course, the old lady didn't believe in subtlety so she simply called loud enough for everyone in the hall hear: "HEY! Redhead and mop of misery!"

Anna's nickname, courtesy of her own proudly self-proclaimed and rigorously exercised pessimistic behaviour during the evening, morning, the day, the breaks, her sleep, sometimes with a more courteous mood, made the owner of said name run shivers down her spine.

For a heartbeat, they really thought that they were going to be skinned and thrown into the sea.

Luckily or not that wasn't the case.

For now.

The captain managed to get a perfect balance of laughing or the better equivalent was sinisterly smirking at them, albeit more at Anna, and then proceeding to 'understand, why on earth she thought she could blatantly comment on a commander and then get away with it without any broken bones or bruises, and no, her sickly demeanor was not an excuse."

Ann and Erika looked at each other having no idea what to do or more precisely say.

So Ann blurted out the best stray thought she picked up. She simply told her the truth.

"I don't know."

Her words left the lady in front of her sign in exasperation.

"How you managed to survive is beyond me," she told her and promptly went to get some food.

"That also leaves me quite surprised," she mumbled, her head hung low.

Helena in all her roughness in her feature looked at her keenly. And then scoffed at her.

"If you turn out to be a D then seriously I wouldn't be that surprised."

Ann was about to ask the meaning of that, but Helen simply turned around to get herself a generous helping of some marvellous fish, which they were given by their saviours in exchange for some help at accounting or something like that.

The short small talk with the captain didn't deter Ann from the beauty before her eyes.

Looking at her plate, a mid-sized roasted fish with some sauce, a bit of salad and four big steamy potatoes and a glass of water made Anna forget about the unpleasantries of the world whilst drooling at the beauty and magnificence of food and its flavour. It almost made the two, seeing as Erika had tears welled in her eyes, get on their knees for the pirates. Going as far as to walk up to the one commander on the opposite side surrounded by both his crewmates and the merchants next to the captain.

On second thought, reason won the battle of feels leaving them savouring the food and thanking God for letting them find a ship which let them stay for 2 straight days while providing them with food. At least Ann made sure to thank for every minute spend in peace in this midly put torrent of a world.

"Life is good," she would have said for that scarce moment, but better not test her luck any more than needed.

Which was why her problems would only increase in quality and quantity.

The dinner, apart from the very generous charity in form of food, also presented to be a small affair. With the commander and a few pirates of his as the main points.

Helena and the first mate were the ones to give a small announcement about how the WB pirates were to travel along as their main destination was also Busket island. And in a show of good faith and in exchange for information from the merchant's navigation team they would help out with the damages. To which Ann noted that some heaved a sigh of relief. Not much astonishing considering the rather beaten forms of some crewmates that, from what she gathered from the small talks, normally would have done the repairing on the ship.

It wasn't much of a nice sight. Burly man with blood stains on their clothes, bandages around their arms, heads, legs or even the stomach area, the skin littered with many, thankfully, fading purple bruises. It truly wasn't nice.

Her eyes wandered from these people. Her heart rate dangerously having spiked and plams wet with sweat at this picture.

Which was why she changed her view to the lesser beaten up forms of the navigators and captain.

That didn't exactly explain much as to why the commander was sitting there eating amongst them at all. His title was enough for him to be exempt from taking part in socializing with people, especially strangers.

Or he was simply invited.

"Would be logical if he was invited by Mrs Helen or the first mate Jake. But then why isn't the other guy here, too? He might have been invited but could have declined. Maybe he had some matters to attend to," she thought, her gaze zeroing in on the group on the opposite side.

"Ah, who cares?" she shrugged and went on to eat of the last crumbles of her plate. Her face and Erika's were only millimetres away from licking off the food. Of course, someone had to point it out.

"Oi, oi, oi. Ladies, if you keep on going like that then you're going to eat the plate, too."

It was someone on the left side, and judging from the voice it must have been some older guy which they didn't meet. Though with a crew with over 80 people it wasn't easy to remember everyone within roughly 2 days.

Ann made it her new resolve to ignore anything irrelevant to her survival, alas eating, sleeping, taking a shower, or getting some medical help, or ensuring Erika's safety. The rest would be only a bleak matter of existence. The muscled and very tanned guy didn't seem to notice her desperate call for privacy. The ones at the table or next to it seemed to share that sentiment.

"Heard that you managed to get sick, missy. And then piss off some WB pirate. Shame that I didn't see that. Heard it was seriously funny." He hopped onto the bench next to her without a care to the glaring daggers that the redhead was sending him from behind Ann.

"Yeeea," was the only thing that came to Ann's mind before taking her glass of water and slowly drinking it slowly as not to engage in any conversation with him.

Anna could swear that her mind was projecting a rather obvious sign of "Why me?" and "I-don't-want-talk-with-you-or-socialize-more-than-necessary-needed"

Even in her realm of thought, her exasperation seemed to rub off on the girl next to her.

As well as on a young woman in her 20ies and from the looks of it a cabin boy in his late teens, who were one of the few that believed in a nice and peaceful dinner having calmly eating on the opposite bench till the rude exuberant guy just sat in-between them, his gaze locked on Anna. Needless to say, the guy didn't seem to mind the dirty looks thrown his way.

"Just say, what or more how did you do that?"

The blatant confusion made him elaborate further.

"How did you manage to make it out alive without being roasted by the pirate. I wasn't there but my friend saw the whole thing and he said that you were like a dead person looking at him till, well, you snapped. "

She blinked at that.

"No, no, it was like you simply began spouting off apologies or something like that. That seriously made him shut up, at least that's what I heard. But actually, what did you do? Because I ain't going to believe that some words kept that guy off your case."

Anna opened her mouth and ...

"That's what she has done." Erika's small voice seemed to have gained a sharp edge on her words.

"Yeeea. But really what did you do? Just some nice words aren't enough to keep one alive, even less a confrontation with an angry pirate."

"She simply apologized." The redhead's green eyes bored into his skull. Though her body was for the most part hidden behind Ann, partially out of shyness and the less than comfortable tension brought by the turn of the conversation.

The man's eyes twitched and he was to say something more but Erika just repeated herself. Her tone firm, albeit her posture betrayed her stiffness.

"She apologized."

He swiftly ignored her in favour of the dark-haired woman.

"And you? Maybe you offered something. Like a bribe or begged him for forgiveness on your knees if you really 'simply apologized'." He snorted lightly yet it left a sour aftertaste for the mentioned girl.

Some people around the table visibly leaned into the conversation. And if someone were to look at the mess hall then maybe the person would notice the perked-up ears of the pirates, especially that of the fishman commander, whose hearing managed to keep him alive on the rough seas.

Anna sighed. She would rather have this questioning over, have a shower and then go off to sleep. It didn't even matter that it wasn't dark outside. Anxiety and a heavy touch of anger boiled up in her stomach. Unfortunately, it didn't warrant an immediate excuse to see the nurse. Meaning she had to suck it up and answer.

"Yes, I apologized. It seems I unconsciously insulted someone of importance and I apologized for that. That's all."

"You're kidding me," The man's surprise was painfully visible on his face.

"There is no way-"

That turned out to be the trigger to fuel her own annoyance and irritated state. It was like she couldn't eat dinner or something without being pestered or having to defend herself.

"What did you expect? A juicy tale of betrayal, forgiveness and added murder mysteries? Come on, I did something wrong, though I didn't mean to, was confronted, albeit a bit too harsh for my liking, and as said before 'simply apologized'. See, not everyone wants to have ongoing problems with people. Some might want to solve problems as soon as possible and go on peacefully with life."

The man furrowed, his black mop of dreads partially hiding his face.

Of course, the universe decided to add another hero to the play.

This time in form of one of the 3 mechanic ladies. A blonde woman in her mid-30ties in a slightly dirtied blue work overalls. She was sitting at a nearby table which explained how fast she got there, appearing next to Erika.

"Hey Ann, say then, I heard from some cabin boys that you insulted the commander," At that Anna's skin reddened more, her own irritation/embarrassment adding to it.

Then, her mind stopped the racing levels of the sudden anger. She took a quick look at the opposite side of the hall.

That was how her mind caught up the proper words like 'insult' and 'commander' whilst the person in question was just a few tables away. Upon this quick realisation, Anna became the owner of a fiery blush and cold sweaty palms.

Yet despite her close-mindedness to her surroundings. the conversation carried on.

"But you actually apologized to the pirate who confronted you and not the commander. Tell me, how does that work?" questioned the mechanic.

Luckily she caught on that particular question.

That was a pretty valid point.

How did it work?

She stared at her dumbly for a moment. Her so-mightly-highly-eloquent vocabulary skill abandoned her.

"Well, I did say going and apologizing to the commander, though the pirate,eehm, said that it wasn't necessary anymore so I just-"

"Thought it was alright. Seems nice and all, but better be safe than sorry. I think that you should go and directly apologize."

"Or not, she did say she was terribly sorry and regretted the unfortunate choice of word, right? I know because I was there," another random person, a guy with scars on his muscled arms, a round bald head, came to the scene.

"Nah, it still is no good if you insult someone and say sorry to another person. That's just not right."

"Hey, she said it wasn't on purpose." This time it was the first guy, whose existence everyone at the table forgot for a moment.

"I think that accidentally or not, you have to apologize to the person yourself instead to another one," said the woman who finished her dinner and decided to put her own input into the matter.

"Wasn't she confronted by some random guy from the pirate crew, though. He wanted an apology so she did it. Isn't it enough?" said the cabin boy chewing on his half-eaten fish.

"I doubt that's how it works," answered the woman next to him.

"I personally think-" another person appeared out of thin air and that was how half of the mess hall was occupied about what was right or not, justice, honour and whatever else.

Having had enough, Erika tucked on the sleeve of Anna's hoodie, successfully pulling her from the sudden social paralysis and pointed with her fingers down to the ground.

Both of them managed to get away from the small crowd who were too much occupied, or let them escape in hopes that Ann was actually going to apologize. From under the tables, Erika was leading them to the entrance. A bit cramped and too much odor of feet, yet still better than being stuck listening to dubious advice.

Finally!

She literally saw the sun poking out from behind the horizon pouring out the last rays of light.

"I really need to stop that half-assed literary speaking in the confines of my own head," she thought as Erika got out from under the long table and went to the side so Ann could also free herself from the shackles of the odor.

"Yep, definitely got to stop that."

She poked out her head, pulled herself out from the table and was about to get up from her position when a strange sight of blue feet met her.

She even blinked a few times to make sure the odor didn't make her hallucinate.

No, it didn't.

She turned her head and was met with an equally confused expression, an eyebrow raised.

The same commander that everyone and herself included was fretting over whether to apologize or not.

She breathed out a strange sound mostly consisting of "Eeeeee..." Yet the fishman beat her to that.

A voice in the back of her head muttered in a hauntingly humorous way. "Talk about awkward. And potentially life-threatening."

"I see that someone decided to apologize. A person of their word, indeed."

He took a look at her kneeing position, a rather mad glint in his eye."

"Not that I mind." His sharp white teeth shining in front og her eyes.

But, she could have sworn that under the cool yet mad surface she saw a spark of mischief in his eyes.

She wanted to say something. Preferebly a good comeback which would save her poor excuse of her behind whilst not inciting more problems.

Her mouth remained faithully shut. Maybe her brain being thoughful of her as not to cause any more trouble with her own words. Or her voice had enough excitement for days and the fishman seemed not to be done.

"Oh, consider yourself forgiven then. I don't hold a grudge against prepubescent girls who have led a life sheltered lifestyle. Be thankful for my nice mood and kindness or otherwise you ..."

He leaned forward, the shiny teeth not so shiny anymore, the sharpness of them having added to the quickening heartrate of hers. The eyes firmly locked upon hers, his pupils dilated as though he was on high. Or was she on high with her short gasps for air, sweat on her forehead, the light shaking in her arms and legs?

Her mind didn't process her with anything. Only her senses on edge awaiting the next move. Like a victim and its predator.

He, mighty and towering over her. She, still kneeing and not capable of doing anything other than simply being there, like backed into the corner.

And then, it happened. Her mind picked up some vague movement in fornt of her. From exhausingly slow to a relative normal thinking pace, which for her right now was agonizingly fast, her eyes registered some movement.

A quirk in his lips. And the markings of a shift in his jaw.

He smiled.

A smile.

Or better put he eerily quirked his lips upwards.

Stood up from his position and left. Simply turned around and went out.

But not before heartily letting out a raucous chortle.

The canned sphere which made her heart nearly explode, dissipated into thin air.

Like before, with the other pirate. The bubble of tension popped leaving her to deal with the aftermath of her previous lack of response to the situation.

Barely surpassed laughter reached her ears when she got up whilst looking at the giggling gang of the other pirates who were also retreating from the mess hall.

Erika made it her mission to emulate the current state of Ann and blushed madly at the entrance. Not that Ann was any better off with her additionally wide eyes.

The last one to add insult to the injury was Helen herself, her smirk not leaving her face, behind her the first mate, also fairly amused by all that.

"It seems like someone deserves some desert for entertaining our guest of honor."

The later on cool shower didn't help to wash off the wave of redness and growing concern for her well-being.


	10. Chapter 10

A cool wave of air caressed her face.

Unconsciously, she turned the other way to avoid the unpleasantness, a low grumble resounding from her. Were it any different, she would have stood up and closed the window to stop the incoming chilliness of the outside.

On any other day, she would have turned up her heater, or go up to make some warm cocoa, as the sleeplessness was a natural friend to any other student, especially one who had to pull all-nighters as frequently as her to get all the missed out stuff into her head.

Yet, it wasn't any other night, or any different than the night before.

The crash, the storm, the waves, the sun, the shouts, the help, the attack, and more shouts.

The indignation, the frustration, the helplessness, the twisting fear, the numbness, the acting, the embarrassment.

All remained the same.

With another context, a different story, a strange plot, a new goal.

It wasn't the same level of stress like getting over a few exams. It was nowhere near the kind of experience, where one was held at gunpoint, playing with the little light of your life that could be easily extinguished by a shot of the not so proverbial gun.

Everything was new, but for the most, it all shared the same familiarity.

A constant. Something she needed. An anchor to remind herself that there wasn't much change. She wasn't sure whether it would help her keep her sanity at bay. It just had to do.

A constant in form of ever-changing mood swings, and frustration in not being able to do something.

Her eyes wandered around the room, eyeing the redhead lying next to her, then to the bunks with sleeping women, some empty, some occupied.

Another constant added to her list.

Sleeplessness.

Her mind filtered through a bunch of screens of previous actions. Some a few hours old, some a few days old.

Like helping to carry boxes from the deck to the cargo room. Helping with cleaning tables and the floor in the dining area. Sitting huddled in a group half-listening to some advice, half-hearing gunshots, loud yelling and cannonballs. Drifting at the sea. Panicking at dinner for messing up in front of an important guy. Having to eat apples and seeds. Adrenaline rushing through the veins, running away. Smelling the sea and a sense of peace.

Lying here. On a bed made of hardwood. A smell of salt in the air.

Breathing.

An unfamiliar, creepy feeling kept coming to her. It may not have been completely unknown to her, yet if she had experienced it before, it likely left a touch of airheadedness of a daydream.

It was unfeeling. Observant. Adrenaline-pumped. Empty. Leaving her heart racing at times, at another getting a sense of nothing.

A kind of...

Detachment.

A lack of grounding to the reality around her. Her soul having enough and getting the shit out of here.

Her mind outright told her: "No playing shipwreck, just a dream! Look! No feeling, no anything, no more worrying."

It reminded her of a marionette. Happily indulging the masses with a twist or a painted smile. Or an actor in one of these useless advertisements with stark colours and unnaturally happy families. Or the public in a TV show, watching, sometimes laughing or scoffing at proper times. Or a spectator that had to wait out the ads for the movie or show.

One had a role to play, a shitty one or a better one, the other simply was subjected to the role of a spectator, having to nod at the shown reality behind the screen.

At the family, played by some paid actors that also didn't value their role. Because why? It's just a role, an act, nothing else. The actor doesn't have to be happy, like the family. Just smile, wink, laugh, get paid, get out. No need to dwell on something created for pure merchandise.

Then how about another story. Of something more real. Of blood, shouts, accusations at a politician, who may or may not have done the deed. Or accidents, natural disasters, some declaration of sanctions or wars on the other side of the world, in another country, in another place, somewhere far, far away. Such a thing begs to fall on deaf ears.

Some may be concerned, some not much, some cry, some ignore, yet after a bit of time all go back to the normalcy of their life, having to take their eyes off the screen, that mostly shows parts of reality not touching upon their own lives.

None of them possesses a true understanding of the reality of the situation. No real attachment to the situation. Only a fleeting feeling filling them up to satisfy for a single moment.

Because how was a spectator to understand these feelings without being there, sensing the flowing emotions.

It was like a blind man seeing colours. A sense of it remained, yet not a true grasp of the concept.

A stray thought led her wandering eyes to the window above the sleeping women in front of her. A small one, hinged to the old wood, with some thin bars attached to it on the outside. However, something piqued her tired, and rampant mind.

Rays of the moonlight shining upon the flooring panels. It gave off a vibe of etherealness and illusory.

Whatever it evoked or however it may have seemed...

It didn't really matter.

* * *

"Rise and shine, ladies! Time for work!"

The loud voice boomed and echoed in the room. At least it seemed like that and a beginning of a rather nasty headache for Ann. Begrudgingly, she got up from her bed. And promptly crashed onto the floor.

"Well, well. Ain't you a ray of sunshine today?" The large grin on the heavily tanned woman with curly black hair didn't help to ease the growing stiffness in her body, much less the dull, yet growing headache. A deep frown settled on her face, which was warning enough to back off. Of course, it elicited a round of chuckles than serving as an intimidation tactic.

She would have growled and thrashed, only the remainder of courtesy and proper manners keeping her in check. As well as a pair of small, sweaty palms, touching her forehead.

Scratch that.

Rubbing, twisting and kneading into her face. It felt like...

"A massage?" she blurted out.

A bit of red crossed her vision, and the culprit showed herself.

"It helps. Stress, I mean," she said, her voice as quiet as always.

"Ah," she muttered. She felt too out of sorts to even comprehend what was going on.

The people moved in front of her, getting clothes, brushing their hair. Everything was slowed down to a painful degree. The clammy hands still dancing on her temples.

Somehow, the weighing feeling eased a bit.

"If you finished with whatever you've been doing, then I suggest getting yourself dressed. Breakfast won't wait for ya."

Automatically, both of them looked owlishly at her, which made the other sigh, the rest filing out to get some food.

"No, really, you two, no one will wait for you." They slowly nodded to her, which the woman took as a sign that she could leave.

Anna took the hands of Erika and turned around.

"Thanks, I think I needed that." It didn't take away the pain, but it added a sense of belonging. Thanks to small, trembling hands, in which blood pumped through the veins and flesh clung to her bones.

Anna gulped. And how strange was it that a simple existence in form of a redhead could ground her to the earth.

At some hour she would be solid like a rock, not pulled down by her thoughts, and the other she wanted to push the nearest person away and jump into the water. Unfortunately, the sole victim of those moods was Erika, who seemed not to mention or outright ignored any sudden outburst of Ann's.

Yet above all the issues bestowed upon her, the small girl's presence kept her from completely lashing out.

It was some kind of play. Like hitting a punching sack, although she hoped not to end up like a bully to the kid.

Having been together for only a few days, two absolute strangers, Anna and Erika wouldn't be able to indulge themselves and have a mental breakdown.

It was a delicate issue which was danced around. For the sake of survival and keeping a kind of dignity, Anna decided that she had to keep it together, for their developing relationship not to shatter.

Having been brought together by necessity, not by a friendly chat and years of further friendship.

It was a dire situation where they needed an alliance, a second soul, to escape the madness of loneliness and make it alive on the dangerous seas as honestly, two young girls, without any other support, travelling on the seas simply screamed: 'Kidnap us, rape us, kill us, loot us' Because they were the weaker ones, the smaller ones and less experienced.

It brought a bit of reality, even for a moment, to her.

"Really, thank you," she croaked out, her voice dry.

It earned her a blush and a shy smile.

True to her nature and grumbling stomach, the two, after rushing for breakfast, sat down at some table, happy to savour the taste of eggs and mashed potatoes. Anna's spinning ceased the moment she got something to eat.

"Who knew that food was the problem solver," she thought, her feelings slowly getting in control. Or at least what she knew of was control. With these, she called, mood swings, she decided to plan for a routine for the sake of her sanity and the sanity of Erika, because despite the disposition of an angel, the kid had enough worries of her own. The evidence being purple bags, hard grips of her shirt at night, the strained smiles at times and unnatural, for her, Anna deduced, stillness. Lifelessness of some kind. As much as she would have liked to help out, she herself had to do some solving to her mind, which brought her to the conclusion, that a psychologist would be damn useful right now.

As of now, Anna's main goal for today, next day, and the day after was a simple routine consisting of: 'Do this, take that, help with that, eat, shower, go to sleep.'

Like during a rough week at school or a bad day at work when whatever you did, it failed and you wished nothing more than to end the miserable day or week and simply start another one. Like a restart.

At this point, Anna was praying to end up on Busket island a bit faster even if she didn't come up with a solid plan on what she would do once arriving there.

Luckily she learnt a very valuable lesson after these days spent on the ship. It was whilst gulping down water to appease her stomach, that she came to another life-changing conclusion.

"Physics don't work, biology is absolutely different, chemistry- let's not go into that. Maths-who knows. But Murphy' law. Murphy, he is my new god for the world."

The thought of Murphy was not of unknown origin as she and Erika were cornered by 5 people of the ship in the mess hall at the table.

Maybe cornered was a bit of an exaggeration, yet undoubtedly it was far from comfortable being surrounded by people who had a too keen interest in what had previously transpired. It might have also be related to the fact that after so much time spent with strangers her mind wanted to kill of any kind of factor that could worsen her dull headache.

Conversations weren't that bad, though. At some point during dinner last night she and Erika gathered from a bunch of too merry shipmen that they would arrive at Busket island in 2 or 3 days. Ann was proud to say she got ahold of how long she had been in this world. Roughly 12 days, 8 spent in the loneliness of the wild, then 1 or 2 days with Erika, and lastly, they were rescued by the merchant's on the 9th day or something, meaning that the morning marked their 4th day of stay here on the ship. A bit chaotic regarding the days, but that was the closest to a time schedule she could organize. She was very proud to sum up the days.

Getting back to the situation at hand, the 'inseparable duo' was being surrounded at the table by a mix of happy, snickering guys, and a handful of passive ones who weren't much touched by the choice of table or companion.

The quiet munching and unwillingness of them to join any conversation seemed not to bother some exuberant member who launched into a chaotic bubble about some tale or something which didn't nurture her knowledge-wise.

She simply continued on nibbling at her mashed potatoes or looking at the portion of scrambled eggs.

Such simplicity yet what a delight.

She opted for strained optimism.

She might even throw in some too wide smiles for cordialities sake. All in all a good strategy if not for the very off-throwing question.

"Did you know that your little ship was thrashed?"

Her brooding problems left aside Ann, coupled with a very much startled Erika, turned her head to the towering muscled guy to her right.

"What do you mean by 'thrashed'?" Though at this point Erika's face revealed that the answer wouldn't be a good one.

"Well, smashed, destroyed, blasted to the sea. Pick your choice. There was some stray cannonball that actually nicked the side that had your little boat hooked on. And yea, the results are pretty obvious." He shrugged it off and dug into his own eggs.

And their hope sunk onto the bottom of the sea.

Anna's already shaky plan to continue the journey heavily relied on the stolen boat to get to another island.

Now that set them back at square 0 or even minus 1. She doubted they could afford to steal another boat without any repercussions. Their destination, Busket island, from what she knew was a thriving point for merchants and tourists, and with the additional proclamation of the Whitebeard fellow, stealing could be pretty difficult.

Looking on the bright side, they got help in form of the current vessel to actually get to Busket Island.

"By the way, did you hear how someone on the pirate's side got chewed out. Not a beautiful sight either," the guy in front of her had a twisted expression.

"Ah, yes, the blue one, saw him cursing out to heavens while scrubbing the WB's deck." It was the lady who didn't seem to be that surprised.

"Wasn't he the one who had a black eye?"

"Two, actually. Plus some bruises. Man, pirates seriously have bodies made of metal or something."

"Though that's not all. I heard he had a run-in with the commander." The young cabin-boy shuddered at the implications.

"And the reason?" it was the big bulky guy who decided to eat some more eggs but definitely sprouted a too interested expression.

"No clue," came from the cabin-boy. "But it must have been some nasty biz to get that roughed up."

Ann's face paled at that. Her meeting with the creature-like man wasn't anything of importance. Heck, even the commander made fun of her, right? No need to worry.

"Or some lost bet. Honestly, guys, you know how unpredictable pirates can be. And WB pirates? Nothing would surprise me with them," said the woman that stood up, an indication that she had enough of partaking in the rumour mill.

As she turned away, she quickly added: "Oh, and guys. I would be careful with the captain today. Heard she was in a pissed off mood."

After that, she walked off. Surprisingly the cabin boy let off a rather irritated sigh.

"And she tells me off for being a drama queen while she can just drop off whatever bomb she wants."

After having managed to survive the shaky in her mind breakfast, the two, nicknamed as the inseparable duo of bad luck, Ann being the main source of it, got down the deck to the what would be called 'laundry room'.

Back at home, she would call her house chores skills a relatively average grade with specks of ingenious destruction in the territory of the kitchen. Luckily the department of laundry wasn't much in danger. That is till she walked into the room and her life changed forever.

Till the day of her death, she would remember the awful smell and lingering goosebumps on her skin from the sight of endless piles of clothing. After overcoming the initial shock the two got a quick explanation that the untamed chaos had to be sorted by them.

Like women and men. Pants, shirts and underwear.

"Believe me, no one would want to have their stinking socks put together with the underwear. Especially mixing the male and female's clothes is a bad idea," told them a middle-aged man, his wavey hair sticking to his freckled-ridden face. He left them to their own devices with a few cabin boys who got roped into sorting.

In all her life, she never wished so badly for a nose-transplantation because of that awful smell.

Her displeasure magnified by her facial expressions managed to get the attention of a lean guy in his late teens.

"At least you're lucky to only sort that stuff. Better than washing it."

Her ears perked up at that. On her first day, in a show of utmost embarrassment, when she and Erika got their clothes washed, she realized that she didn't see any kind of washing-machines. It could be said that she was busy trying to keep calm after the roughish nurse violently chewed them out about proper health care. She shuddered at that particular thought, albeit it would prove to be useful whilst at sea.

She shook off another wave of getting lost in her own mind to take a better look at her surroundings.

A rectangular room with boxes of thrown-in clothing, which were to be given into other boxes with actual labels. It was only split into men, women, underwear and the rest. Above the piles of clothes were the few people and a diligent Erika, who, with a scrunched up nose and pinched expression, heroically worked through the various shirts and put them into the proper boxes. Anna wasn't much better, having to employ the same tactic as the redhead.

That experience would be marked down as the worst of all she had acquired in this world.

* * *

O Inspiration, thee with thy most wondrous baseball bat, where art thou? Lovest thou me? Or thou misprise me? Has thou abandoned me? Wherefore? Has your wrath been incurred by this humble advocate of thine? How shall I gain thy sweet mercy upon my mind?

I beg thy pardon, I plead thy forgiveness?

How shall I fall back into grace?

The answer to it remains silent.

To the readers' questions as well.

(Actual information:

If anyone was wondering when I can make another update:

My plan is to create a better action plot so it will take some to come up with a good idea. The time for my updates is listed in my profile. Fun fact: exams are hard. Don't recommend it to anyone. And for anyone who actually waited for this update of this fanfic.

I congratulate you the patience of a saint.)


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